Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted and then deleted a meme that compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler.
The meme showed a picture of Hitler with the quote, "Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau. I had a budget."
Musk was responding to a report about Trudeau having the authority to use emergency powers to stop financial institutions from interacting with the truckers who have launched protests over vaccine requirements.
Mr Trudeau this week invoked the Emergencies Act, which gives the government wide new powers to end the demonstrations over Covid restrictions.
The move marked only the second time in Canadian history such emergency powers have been invoked in peacetime. The decision was widely criticised by US conservatives.
Mr Musk is one of many right-leaning figures who have cheered on the Freedom Convoy. At one point he tweeted, “Canadian truckers rule!”
The Tesla boss was blasted for comparing Mr Trudeau to Hitler by the American Jewish Committee, which called for him to apologise.
A spokesman said, “Once again, Elon Musk has exercised extremely poor judgment by invoking Hitler to make a point on social media. He must stop this unacceptable behaviour.
“Musk may believe posting a meme comparing Justin Trudeau to a genocidal dictator who exterminated millions is an appropriate way to criticise policies he disagrees with. It is not. It never is.”
But his tweet also had more than 35,000 likes, more than 9,000 retweets and many positive responses.
