Elon Musk tweets, then deletes, meme comparing Trudeau to Hitler
The Hindu
Canadian Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne addressed Mr. Musk on Twitter, telling him his reported comments were “quite frankly shocking”
Elon Musk compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Adolf Hitler in a tweet that appeared to support truckers protesting vaccine mandates — and which immediately triggered a storm on Twitter.
Mr. Musk sent the tweet on Wednesday just before midnight in California, and had deleted it by midday on Thursday, without explanation. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Inc., in late January tweeted support for the Canadian truckers, who have shut down roads and bridges, drawing international attention to their opposition to health policies pushed by Trudeau’s government.
Responding to a tweet describing how Mr. Trudeau’s government had ordered banks to help cut funding to the protesters, Mr. Musk posted a meme of a photo of Hitler, with “Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau” written above his head and “I had a budget” below it.
The tweet came as Mr. Musk and Tesla on Thursday accused the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of an “endless” investigation to punish Mr. Musk for criticism of the U.S. government.
Mr. Musk has 74 million followers on Twitter, making his one of its most prominent accounts. That is often seen as a marketing boon for electric car maker Tesla.
Mr. Musk is known for edgy humor and blunt assessments, but his comparison of Mr. Trudeau with the Nazi leader, who was responsible for the genocide of millions of Jews and starting World War Two, went too far for many Twitter users.
A crowd comprising farmers, researchers, professors, students, and horticulture enthusiasts thronged the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru, on Friday for the inaugural ceremony of the Triphal Diversity Show which showcased 300 mango, 100 jackfruit, and 100 banana genotypes in collaboration with ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli.
The State government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director-General of Police, Manish Kharbikar of the Economic Offences division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the alleged multi-crore scam in the government-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.
The Deputy Commissioner and the Election Officer for Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency M. P. Mullai Muhilan said here on Friday that over 600 staff will be involved in the counting of votes cast in the April 26 elections, at the counting centre at the National Institute of Technology – Karnataka, Surathkal, on June 4.