Elon Musk tweets, then deletes, meme comparing Trudeau to Hitler

Elon Musk compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Adolf Hitler in a tweet that appeared to support truckers protesting vaccine mandates — and which immediately triggered a storm on Twitter.

Musk sent the tweet on Wednesday just before midnight in California, and had deleted it by midday on Thursday, without explanation. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Inc, in late January tweeted support for the Canadian truckers, who have shut down roads and bridges, drawing international attention to their opposition to health policies pushed by Trudeau’s government.

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Responding to a tweet describing how Trudeau‘s government had ordered banks to help cut funding to the protesters, Musk posted a meme of a photo of Hitler, with “Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau” written above his head and “I had a budget” below it.

The tweet came as Musk and Tesla on Thursday accused the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of an “endless” investigation to punish Musk for criticism of the U.S. government.

Musk has 74 million followers on Twitter, making his one of its most prominent accounts. That is often seen as a marketing boon for electric car maker Tesla.