Elon Musk ended up at the center of a media controversy for making an alleged Nazi salute.
On the stage at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., Musk spoke briefly to cheer and support President Donald Trump’s victory.
“I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” Musk addressed the cheering crowd; in the next moments, he then pressed his right hand to his chest, fingers spread, before extending his right arm upward at a diagonal, with fingers together and palm facing down.
Andrea Stroppa, the contact person in Italy for SpaceX/Tesla posted the clip on X writing, “Roman Empire is back starting from Roman Salute”; the post was later deleted after those few instants of video had already gone viral around the globe. Later then, Stroppa relaunched another post on X clarifying Musk’s true intentions, “That gesture, which some mistook for a Nazi salute, is simply Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying, ‘I want to give my heart to you’ and that is exactly what he communicated into the microphone,” Stroppa wrote.
“Elon dislikes extremists,” he then concluded.
In the full-length clip, after making the gesture twice, Elon actually says, “My heart goes out to you.” Although no explanation has yet been given by him, that blatant gesture has elicited mixed reactions from the public.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University, stated, “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.”
Nevertheless, Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, characterized Musk’s gesture as “a Roman salute, a fascist salute most often linked to Nazi Germany.”
The ADL, an organization dedicated to countering anti-Semitism, issued a statement on what happened, “This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety.”
The statement added that Musk’s “Nazi salute” was an awkward reaction in a moment of euphoria and enthusiasm, “It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.”
