
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks through the inaugural parade inside Capitol One Enviornment, in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025.
Angela Weiss/AFP by way of Getty Photos
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Angela Weiss/AFP by way of Getty Photos
As the controversy continues about what billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk supposed when he made straight-arm gestures at an inauguration occasion, Musk posted a series of Nazi-themed puns on Thursday to his greater than 200 million followers on X, the social media platform he owns.
“Do not say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some folks will Goebbels something down!” Musk wrote, referencing the names of outstanding German Nazis.
On Inauguration Day, Musk was lower than a minute into his speech at Washington’s Capital One Enviornment when he thanked the group for his or her assist electing President Trump. He slapped his proper hand over his coronary heart and swung it out straight forward together with his palm going through down. He circled and repeated the movement. He then stated, “My coronary heart goes out to you. It’s due to you that the way forward for civilization is assured.”
The incident solely lasted seconds, nevertheless it sparked what has develop into a global debate about how to interpret what Musk did. To many observers, Musk’s arm motion seemed to be a Nazi salute.
“I by no means imagined we might see the day when what seems to be a Heil Hitler salute can be made behind the Presidential seal,” U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) wrote on X. A number of Jewish organizations condemned Musk’s actions. The Simon Wiesenthal Heart, a Jewish human rights group, called on Musk to make clear or apologize for the gesture.
However others challenged that interpretation, together with the Anti-Defamation League, which calls itself a world chief in combating antisemitism and countering extremism.
“Plainly @elonmusk made a clumsy gesture in a second of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, however once more, we recognize that persons are on edge,” the group posted.
A number of voices on the suitable condemned any comparisons to a Nazi salute — in addition to media protection of the episode — as an try to smear Musk.
“These persons are so thirsty for controversy and racism — that does not exist — it is astounding,” pro-Trump influencer Charlie Kirk wrote on X.
Musk did not reply to a request for remark. In a Monday night time X publish, he referred to as the uproar Democratic “dirty tricks” and added, “The ‘everyone seems to be Hitler’ assault is sooo drained.”
By Thursday morning, Musk had shifted into joke mode. Along with his Nazi puns, he ridiculed “radical leftists” who cannot take a joke and posted: “Once I see the troll emoji, it is like wanting within the mirror.”
In a reply to Musk’s Nazi puns, right-wing influencer Dave Rubin quipped, “Humor is the fascist strategy to defeat these folks!” Musk responded, “They cannot stand being mocked.”
Utilizing humor to say issues beforehand thought-about off limits, or to deliberately spark an outcry, is a component of internet culture that some on the suitable have lengthy embraced.
“That tactic is designed to type of hold pushing the norm of what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable,” stated Shannon McGregor, a communications professor on the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
McGregor stated the tip objective of this shock jock strategy, typically known as edgelording, is to push social boundaries “to the purpose the place the thought is, nothing issues. And if nothing issues, then there aren’t any norms.”
Musk’s Nazi-themed jokes had been criticized by Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief director of the Anti-Defamation League, which had come to Musk’s protection simply days earlier. The group has confronted blowback from critics who stated it ought to have condemned Musk’s gesture.
“We have stated it a whole bunch of occasions earlier than and we are going to say it once more: the Holocaust was a singularly evil occasion, and it’s inappropriate and offensive to make mild of it,” Greenblatt wrote on X on Thursday. “@elonmusk, the Holocaust is just not a joke.”
‘Strategic ambiguity’
Setting apart what Musk meant by his arm gesture on Monday, McGregor says he advantages from the truth that folks of various political persuasions see the arm gesture completely in another way.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas, to observe a take a look at flight of a SpaceX rocket.
Brandon Bell/Getty Photos/Getty Photos North America
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Brandon Bell/Getty Photos/Getty Photos North America
“This what I’d say not essentially unambiguous gesture actually has the hallmarks of what we name strategic ambiguity, which is one thing that is additionally typically employed by these on the suitable,” McGregor stated. “It is aimed toward completely different audiences who would possibly interpret it in another way. However the communicator stands to realize one thing from that.”
Musk, who has ceaselessly sparred with media retailers, slammed protection of the controversy. “The legacy media is pure propaganda,” he posted on Tuesday. He repeated a phrase he used proper after President Trump’s victory, telling X customers: “You’re the media now.”
“When you’re on the suitable, that is type of the bona fides of being attacked by the left, being attacked by the mainstream media, whereas on the similar time normalizing one thing that could be a actually far-right gesture,” McGregor stated.
Andrew Torba, the founding father of the far-right social platform Gab, praised the “Elon salute” in a post, calling it a “masterclass in political technique” as a result of it provoked what Torba referred to as an “overreaction” by the media. He stated the incident “exposes the media’s vulnerabilities, undermines their authority, and advances our agenda .”
The controversy over what Musk did and what he meant by it has energized far-right figures together with Torba, stated Melissa Ryan, who tracks right-wing extremism in her e-newsletter, “Ctrl Alt Proper Delete.”
“They’re thrilled that the eye is on them,” stated Ryan, who can be a founding companion of Inviolable Group, which helps nonprofit and advocacy organizations construct resilience in opposition to threats.
She considers Musk himself a far-right determine, citing his previous posts sharing racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories in addition to his current endorsement of the anti-immigrant Various for Germany, or AfD, political social gathering in Germany.
Ryan has little doubt the gesture was a Nazi salute, regardless of what Musk and his allies say.
“The truth that we’re discussing and debating it reasonably than calling it out, that could be a internet optimistic for them as a result of they’re making an attempt to make their excessive ideology extra mainstream,” Ryan stated. “So long as we’re having the controversy, it makes it simpler for the following individual to insert hateful ideology into the discourse.”
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