Elon Musk appears to give Nazi salute at Trump rally


Elon Musk delivered what appeared to be Nazi salutes during a rally Monday at Capitol One Arena following Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington, DC. Whatever Musk’s intention with these salutes, Americans on social media are extremely uncomfortable as they debate what this might do. means for the the future of the country.

“This one really mattered. And I just want to thank you for making this possible,” Musk said of Trump’s re-election in front of a crowd of supporters.

The billionaire placed his right hand on his chest before forcefully extending his arm upward with his fingers. fully deployed. Musk then turned around and waved again to the crowd behind him. After the greetings, Musk told the crowd: “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.

News cameras filmed the greeting of some anglesincluding one more next to Musk’s right side, which was released online by Reuters. The salute was undeniably similar to those used by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.

The mainstream media seemed reluctant to portray the salute as something clearly associated with Nazism. As NBC News In other words, “Musk then touched his heart forcefully, before raising his hand and greeting his supporters. »

The New York Times live blog He didn’t mention Musk’s salute at all, noting instead that he “briefly spoke at the rally at Capital One Arena and vowed to take DOGE, his cost-cutting effort,” on Mars.

Getty Images photo shows caption on its website who reads“Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside the Capitol One Arena, in Washington, DC, January 20, 2025.”

The online reaction seemed to be complete shock with simple tweets stating “what?” being extremely common. Others sarcastically referred to Musk’s greeting as “subtle.”

Some people have referred to this gesture as a “Roman salute,” which actually predates the Nazi era. But since the 1940s, the gesture has become fully associated with the Nazis, who built a fascist dictatorship that killed 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post noted on Blue sky that anyone trying to defend Musk’s salutes as “Roman salutes” and not necessarily associated with Nazis was not arguing in good faith.

“It was a Roman salute” is an updated version of “actually Buddhists used swastikas too”. If you use it after 1945, you know very well that the association has changed.

—Philip Bump (@pbump.com) January 20, 2025 at 12:56 p.m.

Musk himself shared the entire video of his short speech on X, even as other users focused exclusively on Nazi salutes.

Clearly, people on social media have been troubled by what they see as the Trump administration’s embrace of fascism. But now that Musk has issued a salute associated with the most evil regime of the 20th century, vulnerable people will be even more concerned about the severity of the situation in the days, weeks and months to come.

Online extremists celebrated Musk’s greetings, clearly viewing them as Nazi gestures.

Even some extremists still referred to it as a “Roman salute” while linking it to other neo-Nazi moments.

But a handful of Musk fans insisted the billionaire wasn’t actually giving the Nazi salute, with Ian Miles Cheong, a far-right influencer, writing that journalist Aaron Rupar had somehow edited the clip of deceptive manner. It’s not entirely clear what Cheong seems to mean, since everyone can see the greetings for themselves.

Gizmodo attempted to seek comment from Musk’s Tesla and X companies, but did not immediately get a response. We will update this post if we receive a response.