A MAGA official in Pennsylvania thought she had the same rights as billionaire Elon Musk — until she imitated his Nazi-like salute and was forced to resign from her job.
"Just checking in on my friends who are struggling this week," Laura Smith — the Towamencin Township supervisor — said on TikTok last Friday night. She then pounded her chest three times before jutting her arm out in front of her, the way Musk excitedly did — twice — at Donald Trump's inauguration last week.
"My heart goes out to you," she smugly added, quoting the Tesla CEO. (See video below, posted by Melissa Lordi-Liwen).
But unlike Musk, who was able to keep his job as Trump sidekick, the fierce backlash over her viral video cost her her job.
"To allow the Township to move forward without the encumbrance of the fallout of my video, I tender my resignation from the Towamencin Township Board of Supervisors effective immediately," she said in her resignation letter, in which she also claimed to "abhor racism anti-Semitic or discrimination in any fashion or form." But, as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. And as the new saying goes, not all MAGA cultists are created equally.
From the Daily Beast:
Many observers were quick to point out Musk's gesture bore a striking resemblance to a "Nazi salute." Defenders insisted the world's richest man and Trump "First Buddy" was just so excited he'd made an awkward motion. Musk himself seemed to co-sign that defense—and then decided to make his case with a string of Nazi jokes.
Either way, Smith was then inspired to post her own version of the salute on Friday evening, theInquirer reported. The backlash from the people of Towamencin—a township of about 17,500 people 40 minutes north of Philadelphia—was swift and fierce.
Hundreds of angry emails poured in, and the township's Facebook page was flooded with concerned comments. Reddit users mobilized to speak against Smith at upcoming meetings, state lawmakers took notice, and Smith's fellow township supervisors called on her to resign.
Previously: Elon Musk tells Germans not to feel "guilt" over country's past at far-right rally
