Elon Musk’s salute at a Monday inauguration party for President Trump was interpreted by many observers online as a “Heil Hitler” gesture.
Musk, 53, spoke to a crowd of Trump supporters at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., after Trump was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol. While thanking the supporters, Musk put his right hand over his heart, then extended his arm out with his palm down. He then turned around and repeated the gesture.
“It’s day 1 and Elon Musk is already doing the Sieg Heil,” one person wrote on X, the social media platform owned by Musk.
Many others had the same reaction, including a German journalist who observed: “Elon Musk does what looks like a Hitler salute after talking of victory at Trump inauguration, thanking supporters for assuring ‘the future of civilisation.’”
Elon Musk does what looks like a Hitler salute after talking of victory at Trump inauguration, thanking supporters for assuring “the future of civilisation” pic.twitter.com/xp0kmJ5dFQ
— James Jackson (@derJamesJackson) January 20, 2025
“Why isn’t Elon Musk doing two Nazi salutes at Trump’s inauguration a lead story today?” another asked.
But not everyone saw it that way. Frequent Musk critic Batya Ungar-Sargon said his motion looked more like “a man with Aspergers exuberantly throwing his heart to the crowd. We don’t need to invent outrage.”
Even some far-right message boards were confounded by Musk’s salute, as one asked “What are the political implications of Elon Musk doing a Roman Nazi salute right after Trump gets inaugurated?”
“I love to see it, even though it’s obvious that this is just an Asperger’s guy trying to do an emotional salute and f–king it up out of awkward clumsiness,” one far-right poster on 4chan wrote.
Another user described Musk’s gesture as “the most spastic [Sieg Heil] in history.”
Trump and Musk became close allies during the 2024 presidential campaign, with Musk donating hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s effort and campaigning for him across the country. In his own speech Monday, Trump thanked Musk for his work and included a curious remark about the billionaire’s work in Pennsylvania.
“He knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers, those vote counting computers, and we ended up winning Pennsylvania, like in a landslide so it was pretty good,” Trump said.