Airbnb Disavowed a Cofounder for Working With Trump. Its Top Lawyer Just Defended a Nazi Tattoo.

On June 10, 2026, Ron Klain— former White House chief of staff to President Biden, now Chief Legal Officer of Airbnb— left a public comment defending Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner (D)over the SS-style death’s-head tattoo on Platner’s chest. The tattoo, Klain wrote, was “just a partisan attack” — “a skull and crossbones to remember his fallen comrades from his service in Afghanistan.”

Two things made the comment news. First, Klain is a former member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museumcouncil, and his defense got a basic fact wrong: Platner served in Iraq, not Afghanistan. Second, and more pointed: Klain’s own employer had, a year earlier, publicly distanced itself from a cofounder simply for taking a job in the Trump administration. When its sitting Chief Legal Officer rationalized a Nazi insignia, Airbnb said nothing.

This is a corporate-accountability story as much as a political one. A public company that polices its associations one way for Republican ties and another way for a Nazi symbol has told you what its standard actually is. This page documents what Klain said, what the tattoo is, and the double standard Airbnb chose not to address.

• June 10, 2026 — Ron Klain's public comment defending Platner's tattoo as 'just a partisan attack' · Source: Free Beacon; Jewish Insider
• Totenkopf — the SS 'death's head' insignia Platner's chest tattoo resembles; he covered it in October 2025 after it surfaced · Source: The Maine Monitor; Snopes
• Iraq, not Afghanistan — Klain's defense said the tattoo honored comrades 'from Afghanistan' — Platner deployed to Iraq · Source: Jewish Insider
• ~75% — Platner's share of the June 9, 2026 Maine Democratic Senate primary; he now faces Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) · Source: Fox News; NBC News
• No comment — Airbnb's response to its own CLO defending a Nazi symbol — after disavowing cofounder Joe Gebbia for joining DOGE in 2025 · Source: Free Beacon

The comment landed on a Republican Jewish Coalition post condemning Platner. Klain — who had also hosted a Washington fundraiser for the candidate — pushed back:

“This is just a partisan attack. The tattoo was a skull and crossbones to remember his fallen comrades from his service in Afghanistan.”

Ron Klain · comment on a Republican Jewish Coalition post · June 10, 2026 · per Jewish Insider, Washington Free Beacon

The factual error is not a footnote. Platner’s own account places the tattoo in his military years, but he served in Iraq, not Afghanistan — a detail a former White House chief of staff and Holocaust Museum council member might be expected to check before vouching for a Nazi-style insignia in public.

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Graham Platner is a Marine and Army veteran turned oyster farmer who ran as a Bernie Sanders– and Elizabeth Warren–backed populist. The chest tattoo — a Totenkopf, the skull-and- crossbones death’s head used by the Nazi SS — surfaced via archival video in October 2025. Platner said he didn’t know it was a Nazi symbol, called skulls “a pretty standard military thing,” and covered it with a Celtic design. A former partner, Lyndsey Fifield, later said he had referred to it as “my Totenkopf” and joked about its meaning; a former acquaintance corroborated the account to Jewish Insider. Platner denies hiding a “Nazi tattoo.”

None of it stopped him. Platner won the June 9, 2026 Democratic primary with roughly three-quarters of the vote, defeating Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME), who had suspended her campaign but stayed on the ballot. He now faces Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in November.

Here is the part that makes this corporate, not just political. In early 2025, Airbnb cofounder and board member Joe Gebbiajoined the Trump administration’s DOGE effort. Airbnb moved quickly to put distance between the company and him. Its head of corporate communications, Christopher Nulty, issued a statement: Gebbia was joining DOGE “in his personal capacity,” had “not had an operating role at the company since July 2022,” and “his personal views don’t reflect the views of Airbnb.”

That is a company willing to publicly disclaim a cofounder’s personal political work within hours. When its own Chief Legal Officer — an actual sitting executive, not a board member with no operating role — went online to rationalize a Nazi SS symbol, Airbnb did not distance itself, did not comment, and did not respond to the Free Beacon’s request for one. The standard is the story: fast to disavow a Republican association, silent on a Nazi one.

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The Republican Jewish Coalition called Klain’s comment a “pathetic rationalization of a clear Nazi symbol” and “a total disgrace,” arguing that a former Holocaust Museum council member “absolutely knows better.” The blowback was not confined to Republicans: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)had already described Platner, bluntly, as an “assh—e with a Nazi tattoo,” even as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) endorsed him. The Democratic Party itself is split on the nominee; Klain chose to be on the defending side.

Klain is not a bystander whose word carries no weight. He ran the Biden White House and spent its final stretch publicly vouching for the president’s cognitive sharpness — assurances that did not age well. Critics noted the through-line: the same operative who asked the country to trust his read on Biden’s fitness was now asking it to trust his read on a Totenkopf. In both cases, the public was being told to disbelieve what was in front of it.

Graham Platner’s tattoo is a question for Maine voters. Ron Klain’s defense of it is a question for Airbnb. A public company that built a brand on belonging and trust employs a top legal officer who went out of his way to recast a Nazi insignia as a partisan smear — and the company that polices its reputation against Republican ties decided this one wasn’t worth a sentence. Silence, in corporate communications, is a decision. Airbnb made one.

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Last updated June 15, 2026