On Monday, Elon Musk ended a speech celebrating President Donald Trump’s inauguration with a stiff-armed gesture that mirrored a fascist salute made infamous by the likes of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and other European authoritarian leaders of the 20th century.
Speaking at a celebratory rally at Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C., Musk said, “Some elections are important, some are not. But this one, this one really mattered, and I just want to say thank you for making it happen.” He then placed his hand on his heart, grunted, and extended his arm above his head with his palm facing down. Turning around, he repeated the one-arm gesture a second time.
Musk is the richest man in the world and a close Trump ally who is set to have an office in the White House’s West Wing. Several experts were quick to point out that his one-arm gesture resembled the Nazi party’s “Sieg heil,” or at the very least the “Roman” salute used by all sorts of fascist movements that inspired it. “It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too,” historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, whose research focuses on fascism and authoritarian leaders, posted on Bluesky. Historian Claire Aubin, who studies Nazism within the United States, said, “My professional opinion is that you’re all right, you should believe your eyes.” Media outlets agreed: PBS said the gesture resembled a “fascist salute,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz called it a “Roman salute,” and the German outlet Die Zeit referred to it as a “Hitler salute.”
Musk downplayed the gesture and the subsequent backlash. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” he posted on X.
But the broligarch has made his ideological allegiances clear for years. After Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X, he allowed the proliferation of pro-Nazi accounts on the platform. He regularly posts far-right memes and has helped spread antisemitic conspiracy theories. Last month, Musk also came out in support of the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose leaders have intentionally used Nazi slogans and spouted xenophobic, antisemitic, and anti-Muslim views.
Regardless of his intent, white nationalists and neo-Nazis quickly praised Musk for the one-arm salute, Rolling Stone reports. Andrew Torba — founder of Gab, the far-right Christian-nationalist social-media platform — posted a clip of Musk on Telegram with the caption, “Incredible things are happening already lmao.” A chapter of the white-nationalist group White Lives Matter said on the platform, “Thanks for (sometimes) hearing us, Elon. The White Flame will rise again.” And the Ohio chapter of the far-right neofascist militant group the Proud Boys shared the video on Telegram with the message “Hail Trump!”
On X, Musk reposted a video of his remarks that included the salute. He wrote, “The future is so exciting!!”