Elon Musk Is Furious with the ADL - Here's Why

Elon Musk has reignited his long-simmering feud with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), branding the Jewish civil rights organization a "hate group" that "hates Christians" on X, his social media platform, just days after the ADL included Turning Point USA (TPUSA) in its online glossary of extremism and hate.

The latest clash, erupting over the weekend, has drawn fire from conservative figures and amplified calls to #BanTheADL, echoing Musk's 2023 campaign against the group.

This has fueled conservative outrage, with Donald Trump Jr. and influencers like Jack Posobiec decrying it as anti-Christian bias.

Musk amplified the narrative, posting "ADL sells hate" twice and agreeing that "anti-Christian hate will not stand."

Musk's barbs also stem from the ADL's separate entry on "Christian Identity," a white supremacist theology portraying Jews as satanic descendants, which Musk and critics misconstrue as an attack on mainstream Christianity.

Musk's September 28 post, responding to a claim that the ADL views Christianity as an "extremist terrorist belief," read: "The ADL hates Christians, therefore it is is a hate group."

He followed up by demanding the ADL remove TPUSA from its database, calling the listing "deeply wrong," and retweeting Rep. Anna Paulina Luna's accusation that the ADL is waging a "targeted hate campaign against Christians."

The spat intensified after the ADL's September 26 update to its Center on Extremism glossary, which describes TPUSA, a conservative youth group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, as appealing to a spectrum of conservatives, including the far-right, and citing incidents like Kirk's promotion of election denialism, vaccine conspiracies, and platforms for bigoted speakers.

The ADL's entry doesn't outright call TPUSA a "hate group" but flags it under "extremism, hate or terrorism," linking it to Christian nationalism and attracting racists, per the group's reports.

The ADL, led by CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, fired back: "The idea that @ADL is anti-Christian is offensive and wrong. Many of our staff members are Christian... We are blessed to work with many Christian brothers and sisters in the shared fight against antisemitism and all forms of hate."

This isn't Musk's first rodeo with the ADL. In 2023, he blamed them for X's ad revenue drop, threatened lawsuits, and endorsed #BanTheADL after accusing them of stifling free speech.

Tensions thawed briefly in January 2025 when the ADL defended Musk's apparent Nazi-style salutes at Trump's inauguration as an "awkward gesture," drawing backlash from Jewish critics.

Musk thanked them at the time, but the honeymoon ended amid post-Kirk assassination conspiracies and rising right-wing grievances.

Critics on X accuse the ADL of anti-white and anti-Christian agendas, but the ADL maintains its mission: combating hate since 1913, including neo-Nazis and the KKK.