If you were watching the live feed of Donald Trump’s inauguration celebrations on January 20, 2025, you probably saw the moment that set the internet on fire. Elon Musk, fresh off a campaign cycle where he became the ultimate MAGA power player, jumped onto the stage at the Capital One Arena. He was dancing. He was energized. Then, he did something that stopped a lot of people mid-breath.
He slapped his right hand to his chest and flung his arm diagonally upward, palm down. Then he did it again.
The reaction was instant. Total chaos. Within minutes, clips were circulating with captions asking: did elon musk do a hitler salute? Or was it just a weird, socially awkward wave from a guy who has been open about his Asperger’s diagnosis? Depending on who you ask—from German chancellors to historians of fascism—you’ll get a completely different answer. Honestly, the whole thing became a Rorschach test for how people feel about Musk himself.
The Moment Everything Went Sideways
The setting was a celebratory rally in Washington, D.C. Musk was thanking the crowd for their votes. He literally said, "My heart goes out to you," while making the gesture. To his defenders, the context is the "get out of jail free" card. They argue he was literally moving his hand from his heart to the crowd. A bridge of emotion, basically.
But for others, the visual was too specific to ignore.
The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) actually stepped in to defend him at first, which was kinda shocking given their history. They called it an "awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm" and asked for everyone to "take a breath." That didn’t sit well with everyone. Former ADL director Abraham Foxman flat-out disagreed, calling it a Nazi salute.
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What Historians and Experts Say
When you look at the mechanics of the gesture, it hits a lot of the checkboxes for what's historically known as the Roman salute—the precursor to the Nazi version.
- Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a famous NYU professor and historian of fascism, didn't mince words. She posted on Bluesky that it was a "very belligerent" Nazi salute.
- Claire Aubin, a researcher of Nazism, told people to "believe your eyes."
- The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that while critics saw a Nazi gesture, far-right groups on Telegram were actively celebrating it as a "Roman salute."
In Germany, the reaction was even more severe. Since Nazi symbols and gestures are literally illegal there, the media went into overdrive. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung argued it was impossible for someone of Musk’s visibility to be unaware of the symbolism. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz even had to field questions about it at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Musk’s Response and the "Dirty Tricks" Defense
Musk didn't stay quiet. He rarely does. He took to X (formerly Twitter) and basically rolled his eyes at the whole thing. He called the accusations "dirty tricks" and said the "everyone is Hitler" attack is "sooo tired."
He also leaned into humor, which some found funny and others found incredibly offensive. He posted a string of Holocaust-themed puns, like "Some people will Goebbels anything down!" and "Bet you did nazi that coming." For a lot of Jewish advocacy groups, that was the breaking point. It shifted the conversation from "was the gesture an accident?" to "why is he joking about the Third Reich?"
The Great Replacement and the "Truth" Post
You can't talk about the salute without talking about what led up to it. People weren't just reacting to a hand movement in a vacuum. A few months prior, Musk had landed in hot water for replying "the actual truth" to a post about the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory—a white supremacist trope that claims Jewish people are engineering the replacement of white populations.
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The White House called that "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate." Musk later visited Auschwitz with Ben Shapiro to try and mend fences, but the 2025 inauguration gesture blew all that progress out of the water for his critics.
Breaking Down the Numbers
A YouGov survey conducted shortly after the incident showed just how split we are. It’s wild.
About 42% of Americans who watched the video thought it was a Nazi or Roman salute. Another 42% were convinced it was just a "gesture from the heart." The split was almost perfectly partisan. If you liked Trump, you saw a heart-to-hand wave. If you didn't, you saw a fascist signal.
Why This Still Matters for 2026 and Beyond
We’re a year out from that rally now, and the "salute" hasn't really gone away. It’s become a permanent part of the Musk lore. It changed how brands look at X, and it definitely changed how international regulators view his influence.
Whether it was a "Sieg Heil" or a "Socially Awkward High-Five," the impact was the same: it deepened the divide.
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If you’re trying to navigate this landscape, here’s what you should actually do:
- Watch the raw footage: Don't just look at a still photo. Still photos can make any wave look like a salute. Watch the full 30 seconds to see the motion from the chest to the air.
- Consider the "Roman Salute" context: Understand that far-right groups often use the "Roman" label to provide plausible deniability for gestures that look identical to Nazi ones.
- Look at the pattern: Don't just focus on the hand. Look at the posts, the puns, and the political alliances. That’s where the "truth" usually hides.
Honestly, we might never know what was going through Elon's head at that exact second. But in politics, perception usually ends up being reality.
Next Steps for Clarity
To get a full picture of this controversy, you should look into the history of the "Bellamy Salute" in the US and how it compares to what happened at the rally. You might also want to research the specific German laws regarding "Strafgesetzbuch section 86a," which governs the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, to understand why the European reaction was so much more intense than the American one.