Elon Musk is getting cooked on social media for equating the policies of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party to the U.S. Democratic Party at the start of Barack Obama’s presidency, after Musk recently pointed to the AfD as Germany’s only hope.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) had told CNN in an interview Friday that the AfD “is essentially the neo-Nazi party in Germany” and has “dangerous ideas about ridding Germany of anyone who is not naturally born in that country.”
“What a huge liar,” Musk wrote on his social media platform, X, in response that day. “The AfD policies are identical to those of the US Democratic Party when Obama took office! I don’t think there is a single difference.”
The resulting flurry of dunks included a particularly damning one from fellow billionaire Mark Cuban, who apparently asked X’s artificial intelligence chatbot to say which U.S. political party most closely resembles the AfD.
“It’s literally the reason I keep this app,” Cuban wrote before sharing the bot’s purported answer, which included this line: “The Alternative for Germany (AfD) most closely resembles the **Republican Party** in the United States, particularly in its current, more right-wing to far-right incarnation.”
In September, the AfD became the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since World War II. Its leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, was convicted for a second time in July for knowingly using a Nazi slogan at a political event.
U.S. political scientist and author Ian Bremmer replied to Musk on X, saying that equating the AfD to Obama-era Democrats “is quite the take.” He added that the far-right party “is much more ‘germany first’” on issues like climate change and immigration, among others.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a member of the Social Democratic Party, addressed Musk recently saying that “Only the AfD can save Germany” by stating that freedom of speech allows multibillionaires like him to say “things that are not right,” per Bloomberg.
Scholz had announced in November that he fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the head of the Free Democratic Party, leading to the collapse of his three-party governing coalition. He went on to lose a confidence vote Monday, triggering a new election set for next year.
The AfD is currently polling behind the Christian Democratic Union of Germany. Musk’s endorsement of AfD notably come after he helped Donald Trump retake the White House in this year’s U.S. elections.
Meanwhile, he continues to get roasted on his own platform for Friday’s baffling comparison.
