Billionaire tech magnate wades into controversy by giving back-to-back fascist-style salutes during inauguration of Trump

Tesla CEO strode into controversy on Monday by giving back-to-back fascist-style salutes during celebrations of Mr. Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. “I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” the owner of X, SpaceX and Tesla, the wealthiest person on earth and a key Trump donor and adviser, told Donald Trump supporters at the Capital One Arena in Washington. He then did the controversial act of slapping his chest with his right hand and then shooting his right arm upwards diagonal with palm facing down. This was branded by many as fascist-style salute. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), that campaigns against antisemitism, defines the Nazi salute as “raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down”. ADL has defended Musk’s gesture though.

As the crowd thundered, Musk turned and saluted once again, his arm and hand slightly lower. “My heart goes out to you,” said Musk, striking himself on the chest again. “It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured. Thanks to you. We’re gonna have safe cities, finally safe cities. Secure borders, sensible spending. Basic stuff. And we’re gonna take ‘Doge’ to Mars.” That was a reference (maybe snide) to the so-called “department of government efficiency”, the federal cost-cutting effort to which SpaceX CEO was appointed by Trump, and remarks in Trump’s inaugural address that the US would send astronauts to Mars. He asked his audience to imagine US astronauts planting the flag on another planet, miming such actions and shouting: “Bam! Bam!”

Musk responded after backlash over gesture at Trump’s inauguration

Musk posted on X: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.” Musk (the world’s wealthiest man and a close ally of President Donald Trump) had made the controversial gesture that he had to later on defend, when he was speaking at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC, during celebrations of inauguration of president Trump. “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured,” he had said, after giving the second one-armed salute.

There was instant backlash on social media. Claire Aubin (a historian who specializes in Nazism within the US) said Elon Musk’s gesture was a “sieg heil”, or Nazi salute. “My professional opinion is that you’re all right, you should believe your eyes,” she posted on X, in reference to those people who believed the gesture to be an overt reference to Nazis. Ruth Ben-Ghiat (a history professor at New York University) said: “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.”

Andrea Stroppa, a close confidant of Elon Musk who has linked him with far-right Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, was reported by Italian media to have posted the clip of the Tesla CEO with the caption: “Roman Empire is back starting from Roman salute”. The Roman salute was commonly used in Italy by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party, before later being adopted by German dictator Adolf Hitler. Stroppa had later on deleted his post, Italian media reported.

Some have defended Elon Musk’s gesture, including the Anti-Defamation League, an organisation founded to fight anti-Semitism. “It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” the group posted on X.