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Opinion

Corporate Leaders Can Hold Elon Musk Accountable.

Michael Posner

By Michael Posner

Since 2025 began, Elon Musk has registered his enthusiastic support for Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right political party notorious for its use of Nazi-era slogans and imagery. He's urged Germans not to give "too much of a focus on past guilt." In this country he is leading an effort to shut down or weaken a range of federal agencies, like USAID, that were created and funded by the U.S. Congress.

This behavior isn't coming from a rogue internet troll—it's coming from a man who sits at the top of corporate America.

With Elon Musk deeply embedded in the Trump administration, it is unlikely that anyone in the White House will demand a shift in his behavior and rhetoric. Quite the opposite; it appears that his proximity to power has emboldened his worst instincts.

Read the full Newsweek article.
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Michael Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, Professor of Business and Society and Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.