While on stage, he became excited and enthusiastic about the prospect of planting an American flag on Mars. He then thanked the audience for helping secure Trump’s new position and poudned his fists on his chest, before shooting his hand up at an angle, towards the sky.
He the turned away from the audience and made the same motion towards the US flag.
Speaking to the audience, he said: “My heart goes out to you,”, “It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured.”
CNN anchor Erin Burnett said: “Standing ovation for Elon Musk. By far the biggest reception of the day. You saw him come out with that odd-looking salute.” Her co-star Kasie Hunt said that it was a gesture that ‘was evocative of things that we have seen through history’ and ‘not something you typically see at American rallies’.
Viewers took to X, Musk’s own platform, to discuss the bizarre action. One person wrote: “Elon Musk just did a Nazi salute on national television.” another said: “THERE’S NO WAY ELON MUSK DID A SIEG HEIL AT TRUMP’S INAUGURATION.”
The Anti-Defamation League label a Nazi salute as ‘raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down.’
On X, in May 2022, he wrote: “In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party.
“But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold…”
Alongside the screenshot, an X user wrote: “The salute hoax is just another part of the ‘dirty tricks campaign’.”
Quoting a past tweet, he wrote: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
Another user begged to ‘retire the calling people a Nazi thing’, which Musk replied “Yeah exactly 🥱”.
Now, he has dragged Taylor Swift into the controversy.
He retweeted two doctored photos of the singer with her arm raised – an attempted joke with the caption “My god. Not her too,” while the second read: “Does this mean Swifties = Hitler youth?”
See below:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DFKLNkASDZs/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=invalid
However, the joke seems to have backfired, with social media users sharing the original video clip, where the singer was blowing a kiss to her audience, and not in fact, doing a Nazi salute.
Also, noting that the video had been edited so Swift appeared to be using ‘the correct arm’ used by the Nazis.
Swifties have even encouraged the singer to sue Musk, with one person writing: “This is the one time I’m gonna actually say this, but Swifties… This is your f****** moment to shine. Rise up on this fool! I’m sat,” another joked, “UNLEASH THEM! I want them in their most rabid form on this.”
“Elon Musk is such a weirdo,” another wrote, “If he has no haters I’m dead.”
Musk responded by posting to X: “The radical leftists are really upset that they had to take time out of their busy day praising Hamas to call me a Nazi.”
