Elon Musk responds to California school lesson depicting him with fascists

Jennah Pendleton, The Sacramento Bee on Apr 9, 2025

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Granite Bay High School history teacher’s lesson featuring Elon Musk and President Donald Trump alongside images of notable fascists has received national attention — earning a response from Musk himself.

Pictures of the slides feature Musk’s apparent use of a Nazi salute during a speech in January under a photo of Adolf Hitler. The slide, titled “Features of Fascism,” explains militarism and devotion to a leader as two aspects of the political ideology.

Another slide titled “Cult of Personality” contains a photo of President Donald Trump at a rally with a crowd of his supporters. Some text on this slide appears to have been blurred out.

The text on the second slide is the Merriam-Webster definition for a cult of personality. The next bullet appears to have been taken from an older version of the term’s Wikipedia entry, which has since been revised.

LibsofTikTok, a far-right social media account known for posting clips of public school teachers to spark outrage, tweeted pictures of the slides alongside a Facebook post criticizing the lesson. The post has 24,000 likes as of Wednesday.

“Students at Granite Bay High School (@GraniteBayHigh) in CA were reportedly shown a presentation by a history teacher showing Elon Musk as a Nazi and Trump as a cult leader. They need to be investigated and defunded,” the post reads.

Musk responded to the post saying that he has never committed or advocated for violence, yet “the left has firebombed and shot bullets into my stores and many have advocated for my death.”

“They are guilty of that which they accuse me,” his post reads.

Granite Bay High School principal Greg Sloan sent a message to parents Friday night saying that the situation was being addressed.

“We are aware of concerns circulating on social media regarding recent class materials and understand the community’s interest,” the message read. “It is important to note that not all information shared online reflects the full context or facts. The situation has been addressed directly with all involved parties, including parents who contacted us, and steps have been taken to ensure alignment with our educational goals.”

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