Tesla battery-pack engineering manager Jared Ottmann reportedly lost his job within days of criticizing Elon Musk’s Nazi-themed jokes on LinkedIn. Fortune reported that Ottmann confirmed his termination to The New York Times, but the coverage reviewed does not establish Tesla’s reason for firing him. The sequence is reported; retaliation is not independently proven.
Who was Jared Ottmann?
Fortune described Ottmann as an electric-vehicle battery-pack engineering manager who had worked at Tesla for nearly seven years. The report said he criticized Musk’s jokes publicly after raising concerns inside the company. Fortune’s February 28, 2025 report attributed the account of Ottmann’s termination to his confirmation to The New York Times.
What did Musk post, and what did Ottmann say?
On January 20, 2025, Musk made a gesture at Donald Trump’s inauguration that contemporary reports characterized as Nazi-style or a stiff, right-armed salute. That characterization belongs to the reporting; the accounts cited here do not settle Musk’s intent.
On January 23, Musk posted jokes playing on the names of Nazi leaders Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels. Fortune said the post made light of criticism of his gesture; Gizmodo’s contemporaneous report also reproduced the jokes.
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Ottmann criticized the post on LinkedIn. Fortune quoted him writing, “This post by Tesla’s current CEO name drops genocidal a—holes as a joke and has 308,000 likes,” followed by, “What’s a mensch to do?” He also wrote, “The silence from Tesla is deafening.” The 308,000 figure is the count Ottmann cited in the post reproduced by Fortune, not an independently audited or enduring measure.
What did Ottmann report about internal complaints?
The accounts differ on how far back his concerns went, so their timelines should not be collapsed into one. Fortune reported that Ottmann had raised concerns during the preceding week with human resources, compliance, and investor relations. Gizmodo said his LinkedIn post referred to concerns dating to 2022 and involving managers, human resources, legal compliance, and investor relations.
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Fortune also reported that Ottmann said he received private messages of support but saw no corporate action after his internal complaints. These are accounts attributed to Ottmann in the reporting, not a company finding about how Tesla handled the complaints.
What is known about the firing—and what remains unknown?
Fortune reported that Ottmann’s employment ended within days of his LinkedIn post and that he confirmed the termination to The New York Times. Neither the Fortune nor Gizmodo report reviewed here gives Tesla’s stated reason for ending his employment. Gizmodo reported that Tesla did not respond to its request for comment.
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The public reporting establishes a close sequence between the post and the reported termination, but it does not establish that Tesla fired Ottmann because of his criticism. The reports also do not provide a termination letter, establish whether he filed a legal claim, or report a legal outcome.
How did the ADL respond?
Fortune reported that Anti-Defamation League chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt criticized the jokes. The ADL statement reproduced by Fortune said: “Making inappropriate and highly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust only serve to minimize the evil and inhumanity of Nazi crimes, denigrate the suffering of both victims and survivors and insult the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah.” The six-million figure is part of the ADL’s statement, not a statistic generated by the firing story. Fortune reproduced the statement.
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Can a private company fire an employee for criticizing its CEO?
The First Amendment generally restricts government action, not decisions by private employers. That general principle does not, by itself, settle whether a particular firing is lawful: other laws or specific circumstances may matter. A March 2025 legal commentary republished by Mondaq discusses the distinction and possible exceptions, but it is not a court ruling or a case-specific legal determination about Ottmann. The reporting reviewed does not establish whether he pursued a claim under any other law.
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