Musk Apologizes, Then Doubles Down on Antisemitic Tweet

Elon Musk dug in his heels after comparing billionaire philanthropist George Soros to Magneto, an evil fictional villain who, like Soros, is a Jewish Holocaust survivor. On Wednesday, after critics accused him of antisemitism for having tweeted two days earlier that “Soros reminds me of Magneto,” Musk wrote, “I’d like to apologize for this post.” One minute later, he tweeted again: “It was really unfair to Magneto.” In an interview on CNBC on Tuesday evening, Musk literally laughed off the controversy, saying, “You know, calm down, people.” He explained to interviewer David Faber that, as he had tweeted later on Monday, it was “my opinion” that Soros “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization”—rhetoric that echoes a common paranoid antisemitic conspiracy theory. Musk seemed unaware or uncaring of this, however, adding in a bizarre aside, “I’m like a pro-semite, if anything.”