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Elon Musk has sparked outrage for his one-armed gesture during Donald Trump’s inauguration speech.
Musk thanked the crowd for “making this happen,” before placing his right hand over his heart and then throwing that same arm up in the air directly in front of him. Then he turned around and repeated the action for those sitting behind him.
Many at X, on the social media platform he owns, have likened the gesture to a Nazi salute.
In response, Musk posted on X: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is so tired.”
Musk, the world’s richest man and a close ally of President Trump, was speaking at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC when he made the gesture.
“My heart goes out to you. Thanks to you, the future of civilization is assured,” said the 53-year-old, after giving a second one-arm salute.
There was an immediate reaction on social media.
Claire Aubin, a historian who specializes in Nazism in the United States, said Musk’s gesture was a “sieg heil” or Nazi salute.
“My professional opinion is that you’re fine, you have to believe your eyes,” he posted on X, referring to those who thought the gesture was an obvious Nazi reference.
New York University history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat said: “The historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and also very belligerent.”
Andrea Stroppa, a close confidant of Musk who has been linked to far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Italian media reported, posted the clip of Musk saying: “The Roman Empire is back starting with the Roman salute.”
The Roman salute was widely used in Italy by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party before it was later adopted in Germany by Adolf Hitler.
Stroppa later deleted his post, Italian media said. He later posted that “that gesture that some mistook for a Nazi salute is just Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings: ‘I want to give you my heart,'” he said.
“That’s exactly what he communicated on the microphone. ELONI DOESN’T LIKE EXTREMES!”
The gesture comes as Musk’s politics have shifted further to the right. He has made recent statements in support of Germany’s far-right AfD party and Britain’s anti-immigration Reform party.
Appearing at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was asked about the comparison to the Nazi salute, something that is banned in Germany.
“In Europe and Germany we have freedom of expression,” he said.
“… what we don’t accept is if this is in favor of extreme right-wing positions. And this is what I would like to repeat again.”
But some have defended Musk, including the Anti-Defamation League, an organization created to fight anti-Semitism.
“Looks like Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” the team posted on X.
Musk has become one of Trump’s closest allies and has been tapped by the president to lead what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency.
