Donald Trump and Elon Musk put on what amounted to a Tesla show in D.C. on Tuesday, with the president even purchasing a Tesla on the White House lawn. Although U.S. presidents aren’t supposed to use the nation’s capital for personal enrichment in this way, that hasn’t stopped Trump. It’s an incredible and jarring display at a time when anti-Musk protests wrack the country. Tesla dealerships across the U.S. face both ongoing boycotts and protests. The people’s objection to Musk has punished Tesla’s stock while the billionaire CEO further tarnishes his own image. As if the salute weren’t enough, there’s now a whole new Nazi comparison to make.
Trump/Musk Tesla Show Evokes Nazi History
Though Trump’s ramblings have sparked dementia rumors, it appears his ability to grift remains untouched. Using your position as president to help your oligarch bestie sell cars while much of the country struggles to keep food on the table is a choice to say the least. It also feels dangerously reminiscent of the union between Hitler and German automakers.
Reddit user u/cypher-dex drove the point home by sharing a 1938 photo of Hitler’s 50th birthday celebration at the Volkswagen factory in Fallersleben. The post garnered over 132k upvotes and plentiful comments remarking on the comparison. Seeing fascist leaders use their office to push automotive propaganda is no more comfortable in 2025 than it was in 1938. As one commenter put it,
They say “History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” but Trump is just straight up plagiarizing at this point…
Using the presidency to pump up a brand struggling the way Tesla is would be unethical of Trump even if the brand weren’t struggling on account of its Sieg Heiling owner. Unsurprisingly, Musk, the world’s richest man and one of America’s most significant oligarchs, is getting relentlessly meme’d on. While Trump and Musk are busy trying to salvage a profit from Musk’s spiraling business, historians are probably hoping this is the last time Nazi comparison we’ll see, knowing it likely won’t be.
