Elon Musk appeared to compare the U.K. police to Nazi war criminals in a post on X as he ratcheted up his anti-immigration crusade across the pond.
Since being ousted from the U.S. government following a very public fallout with President Donald Trump, Musk has turned his attention back to stoking the flames in the U.K., which is currently engulfed in an immigration row.
Anti-immigration protesters and anti-racism demonstrators have clashed in heated rallies across the country in recent weeks, after the U.K. government won a court challenge allowing asylum seekers to continue to be housed at a hotel in Epping, Essex, in Southeast England.
Musk shared a post on his social media platform from a user that referenced the post-WWII Nuremberg trials, where the defense of “just following orders” was used by Nazi officials who committed crimes against humanity in the Holocaust.
After the trials, one of the seven Nuremberg Principles makes clear that a person who “acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.”
“I’m only following orders,” the user on X said, imagining a future defense from a police officer involved in arresting suspects at protests. “The UK police force need to think deeply about how the Nuremberg trials after WW2 established the principle that individuals have a responsibility to disobey illegal or immoral orders.”
Musk shared the post to his 225 million followers and added: “‘Just following orders’ is not an acceptable defense.”
It wasn’t immediately clear which incident the user and Musk were specifically referring to, but both individuals have been prolific in posting about the immigration protests in the U.K. lately.
The tech mogul posted the message the same day police arrested five people in relation to an incident outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in London, and two men outside the hotel in Epping.
The group of masked men attempted to enter a hotel in west London and were arrested Saturday in relation to disorder after two anti-asylum groups marched to the Crowne Plaza hotel in West Drayton.
Musk’s latest comments follow a police warning about the spread of misinformation online after the SpaceX CEO and Tommy Robinson, a prominent far-right activist in the U.K., wrongly claimed a 12-year-old girl in Scotland was at risk of being assaulted by migrants.
Footage filmed last week in Dundee shows a young girl confronting a couple, who police say are Bulgarian. In the video, the girl can be seen holding an axe and a knife, shouting “get the f*** away from us”.
She has since been charged with possession of an offensive weapon. The Tesla boss shared a post on his social media platform that claimed the teen had been recorded on camera by “a migrant” and that she and other youngsters in the video were at risk of sexual assault.
Hate speech has surged on X since Musk acquired it and hard-right commentators, politicians and activists in Europe have discovered that engaging with Musk on X has boosted their influence, the Associated Press reports.
Since endorsing Trump for president last summer, Musk has leaned into far-right sentiment. He came out in support of Germany’s far-right AfD party. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk said in December 2024.
On January 20, Musk appeared to do two Nazi-style salutes at one of Trump’s inauguration events, although he later denied they were intended as such.
“Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is so tired,” he later posted.
