Trump fans are calling for PBS to be defunded over its coverage of the controversial salute billionaire Elon Musk gave in a post-inauguration speech on Monday.
The furor came after PBS stated on X that Musk “gave what appeared to be a fascist salute,” noting that the gesture “appeared similar to the ‘Sieg Heil’ used by Nazis at their victory rallies.”
That was enough to trigger a wave of conservatives on X, who came to the defense of the world’s richest man by saying the gesture was only meant to express his affection for the crowd.
PBS News, which is publicly funded, is spreading propaganda that Elon Musk made a "fascist salute" during his speech at Capital One Arena.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 20, 2025
Their own video clearly shows that he was motioning "my heart goes out to you" to the audience.
DEFUND PBS https://t.co/BViYF2nFFa
“Why are you purposely lying about this to divide and hurt people? Defund PBS!” tweeted conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said: “Blatant propaganda should never be funded by taxpayers.”
In response to the backlash, Musk referenced a tweet that questioned why legacy media did not cover the occasions wherein different leaders of the Democratic Party, including Former Vice President Kamala Harris, extended their hands to the public.
The legacy media is pure propaganda.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2025
You are the media now. https://t.co/lgkIbzcAZP
The pictures in the quoted tweet, however, have been taken out of context. Video clips of the highlighted moments show the left-wing politicians merely holding up their arms or pointing, not doing the gesture that was seen by Musk.
In comparison, what Musk did was “a Nazi salute - and a very belligerent one too,” tweeted Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at the New York University who specializes in fascism and propaganda.
Musk then called, once again, for Wikipedia to be defunded, too, after the online encyclopedia correctly said the gesture was “compared” to a Nazi salute.
“Since legacy media propaganda is considered a ‘valid’ source by Wikipedia, it naturally simply becomes an extension of legacy media propaganda!” said Musk. “Defund Wikipedia until balance is restored!”
On one hand, calls to defund PBS aren’t new. According to the Guardian, every Republican administration, including Trump’s first term, has tried to defund public media.
On the other, these renewed calls are coming at an unprecedented time for democracy, and conservatives have made their disdain for public media well known.
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal with Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk specifically cited PBS when laying out which government funding he planned to axe as part of DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency.
Defunding PBS, and not to mention NPR, is also layed out in Project 2025, a controversial blueprint published in 2023 that has become a north star for many conservatives backing a new Trump administration.
How much of the online uproar will translate to funding cuts for public media remains to be seen.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a popular figure and conspiracy theorist in the far right who now leads the Oversight subcommittee for DOGE, also said in a tweet that she will call on PBS to explain “why lying and spreading propaganda… is a good use of taxpayer funds.”
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