On January 20, 2025, while speaking at a rally celebrating U.S. president Donald Trump's second inauguration, businessman and political figure Elon Musk twice made a salute interpreted by many as a Nazi or a fascist Roman salute.
It was widely condemned as an intentional Nazi salute in Germany,Multiple references:
where making such gestures is illegal. The Anti-Defamation League said it was not a Nazi salute, but other Jewish organizations disagreed and condemned the salute. American public opinion was divided on partisan lines as to whether it was a fascist salute. Musk dismissed the accusations of Nazi sympathies, deriding them as "dirty tricks" and a "tired" attack. Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups celebrated it as a Nazi salute. Multiple European political parties demanded that Musk be banned from entering their respective countries.
Inauguration, speech, and gestures
On January 20, 2025, the second inauguration of Donald Trump took place after his victory in the 2024 United States presidential election. Many people were invited, including Elon Musk. Musk was influential to Trump's campaign as the second-largest donor. Trump designated him to co-head the Department of Government Efficiency during Trump's second presidency.
After the inauguration, Musk attended a celebratory rally at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., where he thanked the attendees for voting for Trump. Musk jumped onto the stage, started throwing his hands in the air, and then began to dance. After he finished dancing, Musk placed his hand to his heart and extended his arm out above his head with his palm facing down, making a straight-arm gesture. He then turned around and repeated the gesture to the audience behind him. He then said: "My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured" after he finished the gestures. My heart goes out to you is a phrase typically used to show "sorrow or sympathy" for someone, rather than an expression of thanks.
Reactions
United States
The incident quickly sparked online comparisons to the Nazi salute. While watching the rally, CNN anchor Erin Burnett said that the action was "striking". Some commentators have attributed the gesture as an expression of autism, which Musk has stated he has (under the name Asperger's syndrome). Several autistic people and therapists interviewed by journalist James McNaney of the Belfast Telegraph have objected to the notion that being on the autism spectrum would cause Musk to make this gesture. In an article for The New York Times, Berlin bureau chief Katrin Bennhold wrote that "it looked a lot like the salute used in Germany and fascist Italy" but that "a striking number of different interpretations began to circulate", also drawing comparisons to the Bellamy salute. Pulitzer Center fellow Alec Luhn said: "Slavic neo-Nazis do a similar salute, to the point that the phrase 'from the heart to the sun' often serves as a stand-in for actually doing the salute."
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) came to Musk's defense, stating in an X post: "It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute", adding: "In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning." However, former ADL national director Abraham Foxman described the gesture as a "Heil Hitler Nazi salute". The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) said that the ADL appeared to be contradicting its own definition of a Nazi salute, which the ADL defines as "raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down". IfNotNow, a progressive Jewish group, said it was "appalled" that the ADL had "glossed over Musk's Nazi gesture, admonishing those of us who were aghast at the Hitler salute to give Musk 'the benefit of the doubt' — even as the ADL assumes the worst intentions of those in the movement for Palestinian human rights". Aaron Astor, a history professor at Tennessee's Maryville College, defended the ADL's stance on X, stating that it was "not a Nazi salute". Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and fascism at New York University, said that it was "a Nazi salute – and a very belligerent one too". The ADL declined to say how it had reached this conclusion when asked by the JTA. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt later expressed regret that he had not "framed" the tweet differently given "the impact that it had".
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization specializing in civil rights, referred to it as an "apparent Nazi salute" and noted that several far-right figures had celebrated it as a Roman salute. Several academics with expertise on extremism have agreed to describing the gesture as a Nazi salute. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention responded to the "Nazi salute" by issuing a red flag alert for genocide in the United States.
Jerry Nadler, a Jewish Democratic congressman from Manhattan, called the gesture antisemitic. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democratic congresswoman, condemned Musk's gestures and implied that he was "sympathetic to Nazis". Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said that Musk's gesture was "of course" a Nazi salute. Musk said on Twitter that he would consider suing Walz for this statement. After PBS News Hour tweeted that Musk "gave what appeared to be a fascist salute", Texas senator Ted Cruz responded: "[Musk] literally said 'my heart goes out to you' as he made the gesture from his heart to the people. PBS knows they are lying, and they are proud of doing so. They should be defunded." Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene defended Musk, accusing news outlets of lying about him and spreading "propaganda to serve the Democrat party". Israeli professor at Columbia University and pro-Israel activist Shai Davidai stated: "I don't care who you are, doing a Nazi salute is never ok." Republican representative Elise Stefanik, Trump's nominee to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, defended Musk at her confirmation hearing. On the late-night sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, cast members James Austin Johnson (as Trump) and Michael Che lampooned the moment in the show's cold open and Weekend Update segment. During a CNN NewsNight discussion, Scott Jennings, conservative political strategist and former Bush staffer, said critics who accused Musk of doing a Nazi salute were "suffering from progression of Trump derangement syndrome", and told them to "lawyer up". Catherine Rampell challenged him to repeat the gesture on air, which he did not.
A YouGov survey of US citizens found that, after watching a video of the salute, 42% said that it was a Nazi salute or a Roman salute (37% and 5%, respectively) and 42% said that it was a "gesture from the heart". Of those who said it was a Nazi salute, 49% said it was on purpose, to indicate support for Nazi views, and 30% said it was done as a joke or to provoke controversy (there was no option for both). 4% said it was an accident and 15% were not sure. 73% of Harris voters said that it was a Nazi or Roman salute, and 16% a gesture from the heart, while 79% of Trump voters said it was a gesture from the heart, and 11% a Nazi or Roman salute.
Jewish groups and Holocaust survivors The Simon Wiesenthal Center said that Musk's actions raised "serious concerns", and that his "unexpected double salute, which resembled gestures associated with troubling historical connotations, is challenging to understand". It called on him to "clarify or apologize" for the gesture. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs released a statement saying: "Elon Musk knows precisely what he was doing with his fascist Roman salute at today's Trump rally – which follows his explicit embrace of far-right parties and policies." The Jerusalem Post said that many Jewish groups accused Musk of performing an "unambiguous" Nazi salute.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said that Musk's salute was neither ambiguous nor just a distraction, but would be taken by extremists "as license for their own violent extremism", and was part of a pattern in Musk's behavior, including his support for the German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland and the increase in extremism he has allowed on Twitter, which she said contributed to normalizing antisemitic and extremist views. She gave the example of Musk's endorsement of a Twitter post in November 2023 that claimed that Jewish people promote "hatred against whites" and support immigration by "hordes of minorities", which Musk commented was "the actual truth". He later apologized and called it his "worst and dumbest" post. Spitalnick questioned this apology, and said that Musk's "embrace of antisemitism and extremism" will make Jews and other communities less safe.
Michel Friedman, German former Christian Democrat politician and former deputy chair of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, described Musk's gestures as a "disgrace" that showed that "the breaking of taboos is reaching a dangerous point for the entire free world". Masha Pearl, executive director of Holocaust survivor charity The Blue Card, said that it was a Nazi salute, and called it "an unmistakable symbol of hate, of violence, of genocide". In Canada, Holocaust survivor David Moskovic stated he was alarmed by Musk's salute. A coalition of Jewish organizations in the US and Canada announced that they would be leaving X in response to the incident. Some asset managers have received pressure from Jewish investors to sell Tesla stock in response.
166 Jewish leaders, including rabbis and activists, signed an open letter condemning Musk's "Nazi salute", saying: "Almost daily, he spreads heinous conspiracy theories like the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, promotes neo-Nazis, and agrees with tweets claiming Jews push hate against white people." They stated: "When the world's richest man combines political power with a platform that can mobilize hate, the danger becomes immediate and lethal", and reiterated their earlier call for a boycott of X.
Germany