Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk’s hand gesture throughout a speech on United States President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day has drawn widespread criticism and comparisons to a Nazi salute.
The proprietor of X and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla appeared at a rally for Trump’s supporters on Monday on the Capital One Area in Washington, DC.
“This was no odd victory. This was a fork within the highway of human civilisation,” Musk stated throughout his speech.
“This one actually mattered. Thanks for making it occur! Thanks,” he stated.
Musk then touched the left facet of his chest along with his proper hand and prolonged his arm upward, repeating the movement to the group behind him.
“My coronary heart goes out to you. It’s because of you that the way forward for civilisation is assured,” he stated as he completed the gesture.
Many took to social media to sentence the motion, describing it as paying homage to a Nazi salute utilized by supporters of German dictator Adolf Hitler.
Musk slammed the criticism and wrote on X that “the ‘everyone seems to be Hitler’ assault is sooo drained.”
Right here’s what we all know in regards to the salute, its historical past and why Musk’s gesture has sparked controversy:
What’s the response to Musk’s salute?
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of historical past and fascism at New York College, wrote on X that the gesture was a “Nazi salute – and a really belligerent one too”.
However the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which tracks anti-Semitism, disagreed with claims that Musk had carried out a Nazi salute and as an alternative stated the tech mogul had made an “awkward gesture in a second of enthusiasm”.
Aaron Astor, a historical past professor at Maryville School in Tennessee, supported the ADL’s place and stated on X that it was “not a Nazi salute”.
“It is a socially awkward autistic man’s wave to the group the place he says ‘my coronary heart goes out to you,’” he added.
I’ve criticized Elon Musk many occasions for letting neo-Nazis pollute this platform. However this gesture just isn’t a Nazi salute. It is a socially awkward autistic man’s wave to the group the place he says “my coronary heart goes out to you.” https://t.co/QWWiYHEI65
— Aaron Astor (@AstorAaron) January 20, 2025
Nonetheless, Musk’s actions seem to have enthused neo-Nazi and white nationalist teams.
Rolling Stone journal wrote that Christopher Pohlhaus, chief of the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, posted the video of Musk making the gesture on Telegram with the caption: “I don’t care if this was a mistake. I’m going to benefit from the tears over it.”
What’s the historical past behind the gesture?
The Nazi salute, often known as the Heil Hitler salute, consisting of an outstretched proper arm with the palm down, was used as an official greeting in Nazi Germany.
However the gesture dates again to a salute that’s stated to have been utilized in historic Rome.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who aimed to revive the nation to imperial Rome, adopted the gesture in 1925.
By 1926, the gesture was being utilized by members of the Nazi occasion in Germany, and its use was made obligatory throughout the occasion.
What’s the Bellamy salute?
In 1892, American Christian minister Francis Bellamy wrote the US Pledge of Allegiance to spice up patriotism.
Because the pledge rapidly turned widespread, {a magazine} known as the Youth Companion, the place Bellamy labored, determined to create a salute to go together with the phrases.
Named the Bellamy salute, it consisted of a straight proper arm angled barely upward and a faced-down palm.
The salute continued for use throughout the US with no controversy till World Conflict II when the US entered the conflict in opposition to the axis powers, together with Germany and Italy.
With discomfort rising within the US that the Bellamy salute could possibly be misinterpreted as pledging allegiance to Hitler and Mussolini, the US Congress amended the Flag Code in December 1942, altering the salute to putting a proper hand over the guts.
The place is the Nazi salute banned?
Shortly after World Conflict II, Germany banned the salute and any shows of Nazi insignia, that are punishable by three years in jail.
Austria additionally handed legal guidelines in opposition to the Nazi occasion and insignia shortly after the conflict.
In January 2024, Australia banned the Nazi salute, Nazi swastika and double lightning bolt insignia related to the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary group underneath Hitler.
In Canada, France and Switzerland, Nazi gestures may be thought of hate speech.
Nonetheless, within the US, salutes usually are not banned as a result of First Modification of the US Structure, which protects freedom of speech and provides important protections to hate speech.
Has Musk backed figures with Nazi hyperlinks?
Musk previously has been accused of being gentle on anti-Semitism.
In 2023, Musk endorsed a put up on X that accused Jews of hating white folks, describing that declare because the “precise reality”.
The ADL slammed Musk’s put up, calling it “profoundly disturbing” that Musk engaged with a “extremely poisonous, antisemitic marketing campaign on his platform”.
Musk later acknowledged that he and X had been against all types of anti-Semitism.
Nonetheless, in latest months, Musk has backed the far-right Different for Germany (AfD) occasion in February’s common election. In Could, AfD chief Bjorn Hocke was fined for saying, “Every thing for Germany!” in a speech in 2021, a slogan utilized by Nazi paramilitary forces and now banned within the nation.
Musk has additionally backed the British far-right, anti-immigration occasion Reform UK. Earlier than the UK’s common election in July, a Reform UK candidate got here underneath hearth after he claimed that the nation would have been “much better” if it had taken Hitler’s “supply of neutrality” and never acquired concerned in World Conflict II.
Musk can also be shut associates with right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was as soon as a youth chief of the neo-fascist Italian Social Motion.
