“I just want to thank you for making this possible,” the billionaire said Monday afternoon during a speech at the Capitol One amphitheater, referring to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
TO SEE | A controversial gesture by Elon Musk during his speech provokes reactions
Then, he struck his chest, extended his right arm outwards and upwards, with his palm facing down. He then turned around and made a similar gesture while looking the other way. “My heart goes out to you,” he said.
Many social media users noticed that the gesture looked very similar to a Nazi salute. Elon Musk has only fanned the flames of suspicion by failing to explicitly deny these allegations in a dozen posts since, although he has taken the criticism lightly and lashed out at those making that interpretation .
“The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attacks are so worn out,” he wrote on X several hours after leaving the stage.
Critics and supporters of the Tesla CEO and the richest man in the world reacted quickly to this gesture, in varying ways.
“The white flame will rise again,” a section of the white nationalist group “White Lives Matter” posted on Telegram. White nationalist Keith Woods wrote of X: “Maybe Wokism really is dead.”
But the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-Semitism and human rights watchdog, called it a “clumsy move” and urged caution in jumping to conclusions.
Other watchdogs and extremism experts pointed out that it was unclear what Mr. Musk was trying to convey to the crowd of Mr. Trump supporters during his speech by extending his arm.
-“I’m skeptical that this is intentional,” said Jared Holt, senior research analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks online hate. “It would be an act of self-sabotage that doesn’t really make sense.”
Mr. Holt points out that Mr. Musk was specifically telling supporters that his heart was with them: so this could be a sort of gesture of thanks to them.
The Anti-Defamation League was similarly cautious in its response. “It appears that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we understand that people are on edge,” the organization said in a statement. “Right now, all parties should give themselves some breathing room, maybe even the benefit of the doubt, and catch their breath.”
Kurt Braddock, a communications professor at American University who studies extremism, radicalization and terrorism, believes the gesture was a fascist salute and that “people should not doubt what they saw.”
“He keeps acting like it’s not a big deal,” Mr. Braddock said of Elon Musk. “I know what I saw, I know what the reaction was from far-right elements, including neo-Nazis, and I see what the reaction is now. And none of this is to be taken lightly.”
Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, believes that although it was an “accident,” Elon Musk’s action had the power to hurt people.
“When you are a public figure at the highest levels of power on Inauguration Day, giving a salute like that is extremely disturbing and requires an explanation from Elon Musk,” he said. We’re talking about freedom of expression. Well: with freedom of expression comes responsibility.”
Mr. Levin said some extremists will take the gesture, whatever its intention, as “a sort of not-so-subtle marching order.”
