It’s done, Donald Trump is officially the 47th president of the United States. In Washington, Monday evening, thousands of his fans gathered at the Capital One Arena for a large meeting celebrating the event. On stage, for hours, the supporters of the tycoon who returned to the White House took turns when the main one among them, Elon Musk, appeared at the microphone. There, after a few croquignolesque dance steps and a very short word of thanks, the SpaceX boss suddenly hit his chest with his right hand before extending his arm towards the crowd. A gesture, repeated a second time, which was obviously interpreted as a Nazi salute. The excitement is global. Musk succeeded.
The richest man in the world is not his first attempt. “Elon Musk knows this gesturerecalls Pierre Mourier, doctoral student at Lyon-II University and specialist in the American alt-right. Just a few weeks ago, for example, he posted on X an image of a Roman emperor performing this “salute” in front of a crowd of soldiers in ranks.already causing a scandal. It was at the end of December, when the Tesla boss renamed his personal account on “Pepe the frog.” A character who has become a symbol of supremacists, conspiracy theorists and other anti-Semites on the Web, and for the occasion dressed as a Roman centurion. Another recent example, recalls the researcher, when, in mid-October in Butler (Pennsylvania), Musk declared “I’m not just Maga [«Make America Great Again», le slogan de Donald Trump, ndlr] more Dark Maga». Or the radical fringe of Trumpists who believe that in 2016 their champion was still too soft and that he must come back even more “nasty”…
“Saturate the space to occupy the center of the debates”
“This is one of many examples of his use of corrosive pseudo-humor that seeks to shock to advance his political agenda.”underlines Pierre Mourier, according to whom the billionaire’s message could be summed up as: “I’m reacting because it’s subversive.” A strategy of provocation, too, and on all levels. As of this Tuesday morning, Elon Musk reacted to the scandal caused by his gesture by denouncing the “twisted blows” of his adversaries: “The “everyone is Hitler” attack is so outdated”he quipped.
“His objective is to attract the spotlight and saturate the space to occupy the center of the debates, so that others are forced to position themselves based on his declarations and to exist only through him, in short”deciphers Pierre Mourier. A maneuver that is all the more effective when you are at the head of a powerful social network. He also has some perspective on the first election of Donald Trump: “Elon Musk saw the “fall” de the alt-right of the time, hit in particular by the moderation of social networks, deplatforming [bannir certains comptes, ndlr] and its various strategic failures”, specifies the researcher.
-With his extreme right-wing credentials, which may seem pointed, Elon Musk’s objective is to address young white men aged 18-35 to tell them: “I’m like you, I want to bring down the system”analyzes Pierre Mourier. Elon Musk may well deny having wanted to address the most extremists, for American neo-Nazis there is no debate on the meaning of his gesture: it is indeed a Hitler salute.
From masculinists to “crypto bros”
According to the researcher, since this American presidential campaign, “we are witnessing a great conjunction of numerous American chapels, from supremacists to crypto bros [internautes se proclamant spécialistes des cryptomonnaies, ndlr]en passing through the masculinists and many others”. Could this be an opportunist union around libertarian ideology? Not for Pierre Mourier, who underlines the absence of real common doctrine between Trump, Musk and these “numerous chapels”.
“In my opinion, it is more a question of a junction around the reaction, a sort of backlash against the progressivism which takes place around the fantasy of an idealized old order, whether on questions of order social, racism, classism, etc. And to conclude: “The strength of this speech is that it crosses the strata, the different electorates. Its political DNA is polymorphous and plastic, which allows it to accumulate votes and ultimately win elections. Steve Bannon had theorized it, and before him Roy Cohn, who is one of Trump’s mentors: you have to throw a carpet of bombs, attack constantly and move forward. It’s a war of movement.” In a way a modernized rewriting of one of Mao’s aphorisms (“From defeat to defeat, until victory”), which now gives: “From controversy to controversy, until victory.”
Related News :