After making a gesture at a celebration of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, billionaire Elon Musk caused controversy. Some have referred to it as a “Nazi” or “fascist” movement.
At the Capital One Arena in Washington, where supporters of the recently inaugurated president had assembled for a rally, the CEO of X, SpaceX, and Tesla took the stage.
After expressing gratitude to the audience for bringing the 78-year-old Republican back to the White House, Musk tapped his right hand on the left side of his chest and then held out his arm with his palm facing the audience behind him.
Claire Aubin, a historian who specializes in Nazism within the United States, agreed Musk’s gesture was a “sieg heil,” or Nazi salute.
“My professional opinion is that you’re all right, you should believe your eyes,” Aubin posted on X, aligning with those who found the gesture was an overt reference to Nazis.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian of fascism, also found the gesture “was a Nazi salute — and a very belligerent one too,” she said on X.
Democratic Party members also quickly responded with alarm.
Congressman Jimmy Gomez reacted to the moment by posting on X: “Well, that didn’t take long.”
Musk, who has posted a dozen times on his social network X since making the gesture, did not immediately react to the swirling controversy.
One attendee at the rally told AFP he thought Musk was making the gesture as a joke.
“He’s very humorous, and he uses a lot of sarcasm. So when he did that on the stage, I don’t think he meant it,” said Brandon Galambos, a 29-year-old pastor and tech worker.
According to reports from Rolling Stone and Wired, far-right figures in the US were applauding the action, including writer Evan Kilgore, who described the salute as “incredible.”
In recent weeks, Musk has also made a number of remarks endorsing the British anti-immigration party Reform UK and the far-right AfD party in Germany.
This time, Musk was protected by the Anti Defamation League (ADL), a group that was established to fight anti-Semitism and had previously attacked him.
“It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” the organization said in a statement posted on X.
Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted the ADL’s reaction, saying on X: “Just to be clear, you are defending a Heil Hitler salute that was performed and repeated for emphasis and clarity.”
Another historian, Aaron Astor, also rebuffed accusations of Musk’s Nazi emulation.
“I have criticized Elon Musk many times for letting neo-Nazis pollute this platform,” he wrote on X, adding: “But this gesture is not a Nazi salute.”
“This is a socially awkward autistic man’s wave to the crowd where he says ‘my heart goes out to you.'”
In 2021, Musk announced he had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.
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