Image source, Reuters
- Author, George Wright
- Author’s title, BBCNews
Elon Musk has caused outrage for a raised arm gesture he made during a speech celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Musk thanked the crowd for “making it possible,” before placing his right hand over his heart and then extending the same arm into the air right in front of him. He then turned around and repeated the action for those sitting behind him.
Many on X, the social media platform he owns, have compared the gesture to a Nazi salute.
In response, Musk posted on
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 businessman, after giving the second arm salute.
The negative reaction on the networks was immediate.
Claire Aubin, a historian specializing in Nazism in the United States, said that Musk’s gesture was a “Sieg heil” or Nazi salute.
“My professional opinion is that you are all right, you should believe what your eyes saw,” he published in X, in reference to those who said they could not believe that what they had seen was an open reference to the Nazis.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University, said: “I’m a historian of fascism. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one.”
“Roman greeting”
Italian media reported that Andrea Stroppa, a close confidant of Musk who has connected him to far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, posted the clip of Musk with the caption: “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 later being adopted by Adolf Hitler in Germany.
Stroppa later deleted his post, Italian media reported. He later posted that “that gesture, which some mistook for a Nazi salute, is simply Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying, ‘I want to give you my heart,'” he said.
“That’s exactly what he communicated through the microphone. ELON DOESN’T LIKE EXTREMISTS!”
The gesture comes at a time when Musk’s politics have been shifting increasingly to the right. Recently, he has made statements in support of Germany’s far-right AfD party and the British anti-immigration party Reform UK.
But some have defended him, including the Anti-Defamation League, an organization founded to combat anti-Semitism.
“It looks like Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of excitement, not a Nazi salute,” the group posted on X.
Musk has become one of Trump’s closest allies and has been chosen to co-lead what the president has called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Subscribe here to our new newsletter to receive a selection of the best content of the week every Friday.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate them.
