Elon Musk posted a meme comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Hitler in now-deleted tweet

• Elon Musk compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Hitler in a meme on Twitter.
• Musk has repeatedly expressed support for the anti-vaccine mandate protests in Canada.

Elon Musk compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in a meme that he shared on Twitter Wednesday night.

Musk deleted the tweet on Thursday, following thousands of negative comments on Twitter. The Tesla CEO posted the meme in response to an article about Trudeau's plans to cut off crypto donations to the anti-vaccine mandate protesters in Canada who have flooded the streets of the nation's capital and blocked several major border crossings.

In his tweet, Musk shared a photo of Hitler with the words "Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau" at the top of the image and text at the bottom saying "I had a budget."

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2022

Musk did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.

It's not the first time that Musk has expressed support for the protesters who call themselves the "Freedom Convoy." When the protesters, who include hundreds of truckers, began driving to the capital in late January, Musk posted a photo of the long line of trucks and tweeted "Canadian truckers rule."

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2022

The richest man in the world has not been shy when it comes to criticizing the Canadian government. Last month, he said that the government is "suppressing peaceful protests," adding that Canada's cross border vaccine mandate is "the path to tyranny." Musk also mocked Trudeau for calling the protesters a "fringe minority."

While Musk has said that he and his children are fully vaccinated, he has repeatedly opposed vaccine mandates.

"The science is unequivocal," Musk said in an interview with Time in December, noting that the unvaccinated are "taking a risk, but people do risky things all the time."

"I believe we've got to watch out for the erosion of freedom in America," Musk said.

Musk has previously mocked people who make comparisons to Hitler in political discussions, including sharing a meme last month of the Nazi dictator who facilitated the mass murder of nearly 6 million Jews along with caption "Everyone I don't like is Hitler."

The American Jewish Committee, the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, called Musk's tweet "unacceptable" and "extremely poor judgement."

"Musk may believe posting a meme comparing Justin Trudeau to a genocidal dictator who exterminated millions is an appropriate way to criticize policies he disagrees with," the group said in a statement. "It is not. It never is."

The billionaire spent a few years living in Canada leading up to college and his mother, Maye Musk, was born in Canada, according to a biography on Musk by Ashlee Vance.

Musk's latest meme comes only a few days after Trudeau invoked emergency powers for the first time in the country's history. The Emergencies Act allows the government to temporarily override civil rights to break up the blockades of protesters who have flooded Canada's capital and taken up additional barricades across the country.

As the protest hits its three-week mark, police have taken heightened steps to impede the demonstrators. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has dubbed the protests an "illegal occupation" and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has said the protests have made residents "feel they're prisoners in their own home."

Canada's vaccine mandate for truckers went into effect on January 15. The new rules require US truckers to present proof of vaccination to cross the border and mandate unvaccinated Canadian truckers to get a COVID-19 test and quarantine when they reenter from the US. The US imposed a similar mandate on January 22.