This is why his gesture provokes so much discussion. On Monday, during his speech at the Capital One Arena for the inauguration of President Trump, billionaire Musk placed his hand on his heart before extending his right arm upwards, in a gesture that had all the makings of a Nazi salute. This movement accompanied the formula: “Thank you for making this possible.” Was this Elon Musk’s way of saying he was sending lots of thanks to the crowd? Few people still believe it. Especially since he repeated his gesture after turning around.
For historian Claire Aubin, a specialist in Nazism in the United States, Elon Musk’s gesture was indeed a “Sieg Heil”, the Nazi salute. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert historian on fascism, tweeted that “It was indeed a Nazi salute, and one that was very aggressive at that.”.
The main person concerned defended himself from having performed a Nazi salute with an ironic tweet. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘Everyone is Hitler’ attack is so tired.”
A defense that did not convince many people. For some time now, Elon Musk has been increasing his support for far-right ideas, and even for the parties that claim to support them. Some see it as a form of “dog whistle”, a calling technique that uses coded language to address a very specific community, in this case, the fascist movements. Others see it as the advent of a new rallying gesture among fans of the Trump-Musk duo.
-“Elon Musk knew precisely what he was doing with that fascist Roman salute at the Trump rally today – part of his explicit embrace of far-right policies and parties”said Amy Spitalnick, head of the Jewish organization Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), in a statement.
Provocation, call of the foot, rallying sign… one thing is certain, this gesture fuels all the speculations. In its own way, it demonstrates that the arrival of Trump and Musk at the White House marks the advent of a new era for conspiracy theorists. An era that Jacob Chansley, the “Shaman” of QAnon, welcomed after being pardoned with these words: “I’m going to buy some f*cking guns.”.
