In the past few months, multi-billionaire and CEO Elon Musk has closely associated himself with President Donald Trump’s political agenda and actions. Ever since Trump’s presidential campaigns for the 2024 election, Musk has been a close ally of his. For instance, Elon Musk hosted a “daily 1 million dollar giveaway” to registered voters to rally support for Trump.
Long before the election, Elon Musk was also known for changing Twitter, a social media platform, to X. Since his management of the app began, he has banned journalists from using it. He welcomed President Trump back to the platform too (he had been banned from all social media programs after the January 6th incident).
Musk’s X related actions have not been as scrutinized as his more recent actions. His most notable, controversial publication was an offensive gesture that he made at an inaugural celebration for President Trump. During his speech, Musk repeatedly gestured out to the crowd and stated, “My heart goes out to you.” However, his gesture had a sheer resemblance to the infamous Nazi salute, which had a more negative effect on the audience than positive.
According to the New York Times, the Anti-Defamation-League (ADL) said that a Nazi salute is defined as “raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down,” which is exactly what Musk did. The ADL is an organization that aims to fight against antisemitism (hate towards Jews). The ADL also ranked the salute as “the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world.” After Musk’s gesture, the ADL responded by expressing that the “salute” was “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute.”
In addition to his public presence, President Trump has appointed Musk as a “special government employee.” A special government employee is essentially a government employee who gets appointed to handle temporary issues and policies. In this case, Musk has been appointed as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
According to executive order 14158, DOGE was created to “implement the President’s DOGE agenda by modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Musk was most likely appointed as the head of the department because of his close ties to the president and his technological innovations throughout his career, like SpaceX and Tesla electric vehicles.
Musk’s political presence and controversial public appearances have further perpetuated criticism and protests against him and the President. Protesters have vandalized numerous Tesla dealerships across the globe.
At a Tesla dealership in Germany, protesters projected the image of Musk’s offensive gesture onto the building alongside the words “Heil Tesla” as a way of comparing Musk to the Nazi Regime. At another dealership in California, numerous Tesla Cybertrucks were defaced with graffiti. One man in Oregon even attempted to destroy a Tesla Dealership with a Molotov cocktail. Because of these damages, President Trump purchased a red Tesla S and stated that he will label anyone who commits acts of vandalism to a Tesla Dealership as a “Domestic Terrorist.”
While many of the protests against Musk caused damage to the Tesla corporation, a lot of the protesters were aiming to get the public to boycott any corporations that are owned by Musk. Most of these protests happened on streets or outside dealerships with signs while some Tesla owners put stickers on their cars that read, “I bought this before Elon went crazy.”
Aside from public protests against the Tesla corporation, the Tesla stock has been declining dramatically. Since the beginning of the year, Tesla’s stock has dropped by almost 35%. On March 10th, 2025, it was reported that Musk lost 22.8 billion dollars in net worth in only 24 hours.
Musk is still the target of tremendous amounts of criticism.
