Elon Musk has dragged pop star Taylor Swift into his bizarre Twitter rants.
While Elon Musk has tried to downplay allegations that he performed a 'Nazi gesture' at Donald Trump's inauguration, it seems he can't help but remind his 214 million followers about the controversy on X (formerly Twitter).
Elon Musk was already a divisive character, and after buying Twitter in October 2022 before rebranding it in his vision for X, he's been accused of turning it into a right-wing warzone. Musk has clapped back against the idea of him performing a Nazi salute, saying that the wider world is incorrectly trying to paint him as 'Hitler'. Some of his defenders have said he was performing a Roman salute, but with others (including his own estranged daughter) reminding us that this was a gesture adopted by Mussolini, others ask whether that's much better.
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In the aftermath of the inauguration, numerous accounts have been sharing still images of other celebrities and politicians with their arms in the air, trying to claim they're also performing offensive gestures.
Musk's critics say that using still shots instead of a video where he was performing a gesture with his 'heart' isn't the same, while others have called it out as mocking the situation and the history of the Nazi salute's connotations.
In his latest post about the "Shake it Off" singer, Musk shared a picture of Adolf Hitler performing a Nazi salute alongside a shot of Taylor Swift with her arm raised.
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Over on Reddit, one post with 26,000 upvotes suggests Musk shared an accusatory image of Swift. The Reddit post included footage of Swift from the supposed incident in 2014, showing she's actually blowing a kiss to the crowd.
The comments were particularly savage, with one person writing: "They REALLY wanted her to be one of them. Instead she’s just a standard liberal, like many of the other beautiful, successful women who want nothing to do with them."
Another added: "Taylor, please sue. You have the 'f**k you' money. Please do it!"
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Someone else concluded: "If it wasn’t a Nazi salute then why the f**k won’t he just clear things up by, oh idk… denouncing Nazis??
"Like if it was 'an accident' (total BS btw but hear me out) all he has to do is say 'oops that was a mistake, also Nazis are bad and **k Nazis.' But he refuses to do even that."
This isn't the first time Musk has taken flak for mentioning Taylor Swift. Although she hasn’t publicly mentioned him, her endorsement of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election led to him seemingly offering to impregnate her. In a post that many branded as 'weird'. Musk wrote: "Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life."
Claudia Conway, daughter of former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, added: "You’re creepy. Full stop."
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In terms of his inauguration gesture, others like the Anti-Defamation League are standing beside the world's richest man. The league is an advocacy group that aims to fight antisemitism and other forms of bias, branding Musk's inauguration faux pas as an "awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm."
As the argument rages on, Musk supporters continue to share stills of Swift, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and even Kamala Harris with their arms in the air. Equally, his critics continue to claim he has an unhealthy 'obsession' with the chart-topping artist.