White House Slams Elon Musk for 'Hideous' Antisemitic Remarks

The White House statement came after the tech CEO endorsed a post falsely claiming that Jewish people were stoking hatred against White people

The White House on Friday slammed Elon Musk for posting a "hideous" antisemitic lie on social media this week after the tech CEO endorsed a post falsely claiming that Jewish people were stoking hatred against White people.

"It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of Antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust," said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates in a statement posted to Musk's social media platform, X, on Friday.

The statement continued: "We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans. We all have a responsibility to bring people together against hate, and an obligation to speak out against anyone who attacks the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the safety of our communities."

On Wednesday, Musk responded "absolute truth" to a tweet that falsely claimed that Jewish communities were pushing "hatred against whites."

As Bates himself noted, the same false conspiracy theory motivated the gunman who opened fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, killing 11 people.

Related: Nevada Man Charged with Making Antisemitic Threats to Jewish Senator: ‘We’re Gonna Exterminate You’

Musk's tweet has also landed him in hot water with advertisers, with IBM suspending its ads on X after the company's corporate ads appeared next to pro-Nazi content.

Since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which terrorists killed hundreds of civilians and soldiers and took around 240 people hostage, antisemitism has been on the rise.

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the United States' special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said in a statement issued last month that she was "deeply concerned by the dramatic increase in antisemitic incidents" at sites in Europe, Latin America, Australia, South Africa, North America, Russia, and elsewhere.

She added that Hamas' terrorist attack earlier in the month marked "the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust."

Related: Elon Musk Privately Said That Spreading a Paul Pelosi Attack Conspiracy Was Among His ‘Dumbest Mistakes’: Book

Musk has, in recent years, not shied away from discussing politics, particularly after he purchased Twitter, which he later renamed X.

In November 2022, shortly after his takeover of the social media site was complete, Musk urged followers to vote Republican in the midterm elections.

Musk's tweet — which was pinned at the top of his Twitter profile after being published — effectively endorsed an entire swath of candidates and came months after the Tesla founder said at a tech conference he wanted to make the social media platform "balanced."

Musk has also received criticism for tweeting a bizarre and false conspiracy theory in the wake of last year's attack on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi.

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