Elon Musk compared controversial billionaire Democratic donor George Soros to “X-Men” supervillain “Magneto” in a series of tweets on May 15, just days after Soros’s firm disclosed having sold off its stake in Tesla.
He added that Hungarian-born investor Soros, 92, “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization” and “hates humanity.”
Musk’s comments came after Soros’ investment management firm, Soros Fund Management, confirmed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and exchange commission published on Friday that it sold off its entire stake in Tesla’s stocks in the first quarter of this year.
According to the filing, Soros’ fund held 132,000 shares in Tesla last quarter, worth about $16.3 million at the time, before selling them off after Tesla’s stock price surged.
Soros’ firm also cut its stake in rival carmaker Rivian and a string of tech companies like Amazon and Alphabet, the filing shows.
It also reduced its stake in First Horizon Bank by 14.37 percent to roughly 7.31 million shares.
Responding to Musk’s comments on Monday, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a civil rights group that tracks antisemitism incidents, said the remarks will “embolden extremists.”
Musk Posts ‘Distressing, Dangerous’
“Soros often is held up by the far-right, using antisemitic tropes, as the source of the world’s problems,” Greenblatt posted on Twitter. “To see Elon Musk, regardless of his intent, feed this segment—comparing him to a Jewish supervillain, claiming Soros ‘hates humanity’—is not just distressing, it’s dangerous: it will embolden extremists who already contrive anti-Jewish conspiracies and have tried to attack Soros and Jewish communities as a result.”Saranga accused Twitter of doing “nothing to address this problem.”
“It reminds me of Niemöller’s words which are prominently featured on a wall of the Holocaust Museum in Washington: ‘First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me,” he wrote.
Musk Touts ‘Freedom of Speech’
“It’s freedom of speech; I’m allowed to say what I want,” Musk said, adding that he is not concerned if his posts don’t go down well with Twitter advertisers or potential Tesla buyers.“I’ll say what I want to say, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it,” Musk said in the interview.
However, the businessman stressed he is not an anti-Semite and is “a pro-Semite if anything.”
Bragg led the indictment against former President Donald Trump.
“I think some on the right would rather focus on far-fetched conspiracy theories than on the serious charges against the former president,” Soros told Semafor in a March interview.
The nonprofit organization later went on to file a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on behalf of illegal immigrants who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard.
