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'He Is Who We Think He Is': Elon Musk Appears to Do Fascist Salutes at Post-Inauguration Celebration [1]
['Eloise Goldsmith', 'Eloise Goldsmith Is A Staff Writer For Common Dreams.']
Date: 2025-01-20 22:52:07+00:00
While concluding his remarks at a Washington, D.C. celebration rally following President Donald Trump's inauguration Monday, Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk raised his right arm, with his palm facing down, in a gesture that closely resembled a salute associated with Nazi Germany. Musk can be seen making the gesture twice.
The Anti-Defamation League, a group that combats antisemitism, defines the Nazi salute as consisting of "raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down."
Former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) wrote: "Dang he meant that. Looks as if he's been holding that in for a while and finally was able to let it rip. Like he practiced in the mirror to hit that angle just right."
Others also weighed in on social media. "Did Elon Musk just hit the roman salute at his inauguration speech?” Twitch streamer Hasan Piker posted on the platform X, which is owned by Musk. "Why isn't Elon Musk doing two Nazi salutes at Trump's inauguration a lead story today?" asked political strategist Walid Shahid.
A BlueSky user wrote "Casual Nazi salute on live television."
"He accidentally did a Nazi salute... TWICE," wrote the journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote. "He is who we think he is."
Musk, a GOP megadonor who is slated to play a large role in the Trump administration, has expressed his support for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), a virulently ant-immigration party that has been designated by the German domestic intelligence service as a "suspected extremist" organization. Figures in the party have been accused of using Nazi slogans in speeches and downplaying the Holocaust. Musk held a live event on X with the leader of AfD, Alice Weidel, in early January.
Musk has also repeatedly attacked billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, who has been the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, including by falsely claiming Soros "collaborated with the Nazis as a teenager" and describing him as a "psychopath trying to destroy the West," according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Michael McCarthy, a PhD student at Indiana University wrote on X: "Tomorrow we'll get an explanation that it wasn't a Sieg Heil, he was just pantomiming his 'heart going out to the people.' Legacy media will basically accept this explanation."
"But you know what you saw," McCarthy added. "And you know what he is."
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