Elon Musk has denied having performed a Nazi salute during the inauguration of Donald Trump, but his gesture nevertheless met with real resonance online with far-right and nationalist movements.
• Also read: Accused of “Nazi salute”, Musk ironically suggests “better dirty tricks”
• Also read: Did Elon Musk really give a Nazi salute at Donald Trump’s swearing-in?
Several neo-Nazi leaders have shared videos of the moment when the whimsical American businessman twice performs a salute described by some as “Nazi”, Monday during a rally in Washington after the swearing-in of Donald Trump.
After thanking the crowd for allowing the latter’s return to the White House, Elon Musk hit his chest with his right hand, then extended his arm with an open palm. He then repeated the gesture, turning to the rest of the crowd behind him, before declaring: “My heart goes out to you.”
Elon Musk’s detractors and historians have estimated that his gesture was indeed a “sieg heil”, the Nazi salute. The richest man on the planet responded ironically to them on Tuesday, suggesting they find “better dirty tricks.”
“Donald Trump’s ‘White power’ moment,” the leader of an Australian neo-Nazi movement wrote on Telegram, according to one of the many publications verified by AFP.
On the Nazi forum Stormfront, a user posted an image of Elon Musk’s gesture, with the caption: “Heil Hitler.”
A branch of the former American far-right group Proud Boys, some of whose members convicted for the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 were pardoned Monday by Donald Trump, also shared a video of the moment on Telegram.
All annotated with a slightly modified message in English: “Hail Trump!”
-“White supremacists”
“There is no doubt among white supremacists that Musk was giving a Nazi salute,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told AFP.
Far-right figures are “more than happy” and “generally, they think that Musk’s raised arm marks an endorsement of their opinions,” she said.
T. Kenny Fountain, who studies rhetoric and extremism at the University of Virginia, stressed that “the intention (of Musk) is important, but so is the reception.”
“If a devout public interprets this gesture as an important sign of recognition, we are in dangerous territory,” he wrote on Bluesky. “Unsurprisingly, it seems that many people on the far right view him that way.”
Andrew Torba, founder of the Gab platform, popular with conservatives, posted a photo of Musk and wrote: “Incredible things are already happening.”
Christopher Pohlhaus, leader of the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, shared a video comparing Musk’s gesture frame-by-frame with masked members of his group carrying swastikas and giving the Nazi salute.
His followers reacted with lightning bolt emojis, a reference to the SS.
On Elon Musk’s own platform X, an anonymous account that has Hitler speeches pinned to its page, shared a new video montage comparing the billionaire’s gesture to Hitler’s postures.
“Sieg Heil?? Are we really back?” says the post, which has been viewed two million times.
