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Neo-Nazis celebrate Elon Musk giving two Nazi salutes during a speech to tens of thousands of Supporters of President Donald Trump on Monday
“Elections come and go, some elections are important, some aren’t, but this one really mattered,” Musk said during his address at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC, hours later. Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. “And I just want to say thank you for making it happen. Thank you.”
At this point, Musk placed his right hand on his chest before stretching it straight out with his palm facing down and his fingers touching, a gesture widely recognized as the “Roman salute.” Adopted by the fascist movement a century ago, it was most famously used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany, and is today associated with the fascist right, especially in Italy.
After making the first gesture, Musk turned to members of the crowd sitting behind him and, with his back to the camera, repeated the gesture.
“My heart goes out to you,” Musk added.
Musk later shared a clip of his speech on X, but at the point where he makes the first greeting, the clip posted by Musk cuts to a shot of the audience before returning to show him making the second salute.
Musk, X, and the Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The response from the neo-Nazi community around the globe was immediate and unanimous.
“Incredible things have already happened,” Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, a social networking platform popular with anti-Semites and white supremacists, wrote on a photo of Musk giving the salute.
“The whole neo-Nazi movement seems to be eating itself,” says Nick Martin, an investigative reporter who closely follows extremist groups and manages the online publication. The informant. “He gave two unmistakable Nazi salutes and they got the message loud and clear.”
“WE ARE FUCKING BACK” the administrator of a Nazi meme channel on Telegram wrote under a clip of Musk giving the salute. The group members responded with the lightning bolt emoji, a known neo-Nazi reference to the SS.
“I don’t care if it was a mistake, I’ll love the tears over it,” Christopher Pohlhaus, the head of the American neo-Nazi group Blood Tribehe wrote on his Telegram channel under a gif of greeting Musk.
Keith Woods, a prominent Irish far-right influencer who has repeatedly praised Musk, responded to the actions by writing on X: “OK, maybe, wake up is really dead.”
Evan Kilgore, a right-wing political commentator, wrote on X: “Holy shit… Elon Musk just did Heil Hitler at Trump’s inauguration rally in Washington DC… This is unbelievable.” Kilgore later wrote, “We are so back.”
Kilgore, what he is a holocaust denierworked as an ambassador for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. On Sunday night, the conservative activist group hosted a pre-inauguration ball that featured JD Vance, who was inaugurated as vice president today, and the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
Musk has has embraced far-right ideology and figures across the globeincluding the jailed islaphobic activist Tommy Robinson in the UK, over the past two years. Most recently, he promoted the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany. In an hour-long interview with party leader Alice Weidel earlier this month, Musk agreed with the wild conspiracy theory. that Hitler was a communist.
