Elon Musk regrets liking antisemitic post, but rips advertisers who cancelled over it

The X owner said that he should not have endorsed a screed promoting Jew-hatred .

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

X owner Elon Musk apologized Wednesday for an antisemitic post he had endorsed while slamming huge companies that pulled their advertising from his social media platform over it.

Speaking at the New York Times‘ Dealbook conference, the billionaire said that when he had approved of a post on X claiming that Jews “have been pushing…a dialectical hatred against whites,” as “the actual truth” two weeks ago, it “literally the worst and dumbest post that I’ve ever done.”

“I’m sorry for that tweet or post, it was foolish of me,” he added, while also saying that it had been misconstrued and that claims he is antisemitic “couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

Musk has been called out over other anti-Jewish statements he has made in the past.

He followed the apology up with a great deal of vitriol against the major advertisers who left X because of his perceived antisemitic views.

“If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money?” Musk said. “Go f*** yourself.”

Apple, Comcast, Disney, IBM, Warner Bros Discovery and other conglomerates have cut off millions of dollars in ads, with IBM saying in a statement that it had “suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.”

Disney pulled out, said CEO Bob Iger, because the company did not feel that “the association with [Musk’s] position” that he had taken “in quite a public manner,” was “not necessarily a positive one for us,” considering that the business mogul is “larger than life” and “his name is very much tied to the companies he either founded or he owns.”

Musk had just returned from a visit to Israel that he said was arranged before the explosion of criticism regarding his post.

He wore around his neck a metal dog tag with the words “Bring Them Home” that he had received from one of the families of Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas during its October 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Gaza envelope communities.

During his visit, in which he was taken to one of the hardest-hit border kibbutzim by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, he appeared to take Israel’s side in the war, saying, “Those that are intent on murder must be neutralized,” he said.