A well-liked weather anchor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been fired for making a post on her personal social media account condemning Elon Musk for making a hand gesture that many observers have said appeared to be a Nazi salute.
Milwaukee CBS affiliate station WDJT-TV, also known as CBS58, fired meteorologist Sam Kuffel for comments she made this week on her Instagram. Staff were notified of her termination in an email on Wednesday.
“Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58. A search for a replacement is underway,” the memo read.
Kuffel’s post received widespread attention after Milwaukee-based conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell shared it with his followers, prompting many to call for her termination. Kuffel’s comments did not appear in any newscast, nor did she share her thoughts on her official social media pages.
“Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration,” Kuffel wrote in one of her posts, referring to Elon Musk’s hand gesture at Trump’s inauguration.
In a second post, Kuffel shared images of Musk doing the hand motion and a screenshot of a character from “Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” with the caption: “Screw that old bitch. He’s a Nazi.”
You fucking with this and this man, I don’t fuck with you. Full stop.
After O’Donnell shared her posts, Kuffel made her account private. She has not shared any additional information since her termination.
Social media has been inundated with posts responding to Musk’s hand gesture. Musk has downplayed the action and denied that it was Nazi-esque, calling complaints about it “dirty tricks.” He also complained that “the ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
Experts in the history of fascist and authoritarian movements have said that Musk’s gesture was the same as the hand motion used to salute Hitler in Nazi Germany.
“Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too,” New York University professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat said in a post on Bluesky.
German people have also weighed in on Musk’s hand gesture, with many saying that it appeared to be a Nazi salute.
“Whoever on a political stage, making a political speech in front of a partly far-right audience, elongates his arm diagonally in the air both forcefully and repeatedly, is making a Hitler salute,” wrote Lenz Jacobsen, a journalist for the German publication Die Zeit. “There’s no such ‘probably’ or ‘similar to’ or ‘controversial’ about it. The gesture speaks for itself.”
White nationalists in the U.S. similarly recognized Musk’s hand gesture as a Nazi salute — and celebrated his use of the gesture on a national stage.
Musk’s hand movement “wasn’t even like, like a subtle — like a wave,” white nationalist Nick Fuentes said in a recent interview, noting that the billionaire’s arm went “straight up like ‘Sieg Heil.'”
Notably, Musk has frequently expressed support for far right and antisemitic views. In 2022, Musk purchased the social media platform X — then known as Twitter — for the purpose of making it open to all forms of “free speech,” claiming the company had been banning accounts with extreme right-wing views. Since Musk’s takeover, the platform has become a bastion for far right content, including antisemitic conspiracy theories.
In 2023, Musk shared a post on the site from a user who claimed that Jewish people push a “hatred against Whites.” The post also pushed the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which falsely purports that Jewish leaders around the world are trying to dilute white populations by introducing nonwhite immigrants to their countries.
This past fall, Musk shared an interview by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in which his guest falsely suggested that the Nazi Holocaust during World War II was accidental and had been brought about by aggressive behavior from the Allied powers. Musk shared a video of the interview, calling it “very interesting” and “worth watching,” only to delete the post after it was met with widespread criticism.
And late last year, Musk announced his support for Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far right neo-Nazi party in that country’s parliamentary elections in February. AfD is vehemently anti-immigrant and pro-German “identity,” with its leaders frequently expressing anti-Muslim and antisemitic viewpoints. They have also downplayed and outright denied the Holocaust, and have called for German school books to be rewritten to limit criticism of the Nazi party.
Following her termination from the Milwaukee news station, many Milwaukee area- and Wisconsin-based voices spoke out in support of Kuffel.
“It is very troubling that a weather reporter was fired, rather than disciplined (if at all) for a social media post unrelated to her particular beat. … In the past such an indiscretion would have perhaps merited a scolding, or a suspension,” journalist Michael Horne said. “I think the higher-ups in the corporate chain may have required this draconian response, tarnishing a young professional’s career, all for fear of Trump.”
“There are a lot of good reporters at CBS 58. I hope management understands that firing their own employees for the benefit of far-right billionaires like Musk is a dangerous road to go down,” Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, who represents a district about an hour’s drive west of Milwaukee, said on Facebook.
“Shame on @CBS58 for firing Sam Kuffel for naming @elonmusk’s Nazi salute. This dark chapter of our country’s history will eventually be over and we’ll all remember who showed integrity & who didn’t,” Milwaukee photographer Isaac Rowlett said on X.
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