Elon Musk’s ongoing descent into radicalism reached a new milestone on Monday after the billionaire amplified a QAnon-themed video produced by a pro-Hitler account.
The clip, which promotes former President Donald Trump to the tune of Van Halen’s “Jump,” references the letter “Q” as well as the term “PATRIQTS.”
Thanks to Musk’s promotion, the video has over 29 million views as of Tuesday morning. Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory believe that Trump is leading a secret battle to save humanity from a Satanic cabal of child-eating liberals.
A watermark on the clip indicates that it was produced by “National Revival,” an X user whose account references Nazi ideology.
The user appears largely to advocate for returning Iran to the pre-Islamic revolutionary era. The account’s location is listed as “Aryan Hyperborea,” a mythical land commonly associated with the Arctic that is highly regarded in esoteric Nazi ideology as the Aryan homeland.
In at least two comments, National Revival directly mentions Adolf Hitler as well, including one in which he says the Nazi leader considered Iranians to be “pure blooded Aryans.” National Revival, however, closed out his argument by adding: “Not that it matters.”
In a tweet supporting Trump, the account says “Our Aryan willpower shall not break and we will overcome whatever they throw at us.”
QAnon adherents excitedly applauded the video, proclaiming that Musk endorsed the conspiracy theory.
“WARNING: ELON MUSK HAS JUST ENDORSED Q !!!” the user @QTHESTORMM wrote. “ARE YOU READY ???”
Conspiracy theorists also noted that Musk’s amplification of the video came not long after the billionaire shared a debunked Pizzagate claim to his more than 203 million followers.
In that post, Musk shared a fake news article claiming that a journalist who supposedly debunked Pizzagate, a conspiracy theory that alleges former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was involved in a child-trafficking ring run out of a pizza parlor, was arrested for “raping toddlers.”
The journalist in question, Slade Sohmer, was arrested for possessing child abuse material in 2023. But Sohmer never once wrote an article debunking Pizzagate, nor was he friends with Clinton confidante John Podesta.
Musk also shared a nearly identical debunked claim regarding Pizzagate and former ABC reporter James Gordon Meek in 2023.
Outside conspiratorial circles, Musk’s QAnon promotion was widely condemned.
“Had to check myself, but yes Elon Musk did post a QAnon hype video of Trump,” extremism researcher Jared Holt said.
While Musk doesn’t regularly mention QAnon, this isn’t the first time that the billionaire has dipped his toe into the conspiracy theory.
In November 2023, Musk posted the term “Q*ANON” to X while referencing a letter sent to artificial intelligence company OpenAI about the perceived threat from an AI program known as Q.
Unsurprisingly, the QAnon movement responded with the same widespread fervor then, suggesting that his remark was evidence of the conspiracy theory’s legitimacy.
Since purchasing X, Musk has dabbled in increasingly far-right content, from antisemitism to voter fraud conspiracy theories.
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