A carnival float at a German parade depicting Elon Musk wearing a nappy, holding a swastika flag and carrying a poo-filled megaphone has gone viral on social media.
The parade at Germany’s Rosenmontag (Shrove Monday) festival in Düsseldorf made clear what many Europeans now feel about the current US government.
The float depicted the right-wing tech billionaire wearing a baby’s nappy (diaper), with the logo of Alternative for Germany (AfD) on the front. He was holding an American flag shaped like a swastika, a hat with “Napo-Elon” written on the front and drool dripping from his mouth. A video of the float was shared to X, the platform that Elon Musk owns, where it went viral, attracting 8.8 million views at the time of writing.
NEW – Elon Musk was shown today with a swastika in his hand at the carnival in Düsseldorf, Germany.https://t.co/L6YDZNV11D— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) March 3, 2025
The caricature was topped off with Musk holding a red X-branded megaphone with excrement spilling out of it. A nurse was also shown trying to restrain him in a straitjacket.
In 2023, X/Twitter implemented auto-replies to journalists’ inquiries with a single poo emoji. Musk announced the change on the social media platform.
Musk, who was accused of twice making a Nazi-style salute during an event celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration, has denied the gesture was offensive, saying the Democratic Party was playing “dirty tricks”.
China’s president Xi Jinping, US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin were parodied naked during the annual Rose Monday parade in Dusseldorf. (Hesham Elsherif/Getty Images)
The parade also featured floats referencing Donald Trump and the tension between him and Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
German sculptor and illustrator Jacques Tilly, who created the designs, told Visit Duesseldorf: “When our order is threatened, we build floats with strong opinions all the more.”