The video started circulating almost the second he stepped off the stage. On January 20, 2025, during a high-energy post-inauguration celebration for Donald Trump at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., Elon Musk did something that set the internet on fire. He was standing there, basking in the cheers, and suddenly he slapped his right hand against his chest and thrust his arm upward.
Palm down. Fingers straight.
He didn't just do it once. He turned around and did it again for the people sitting behind him. Within minutes, "Sieg Heil" was trending. But as with everything involving the world’s richest man, the reality is a messy tangle of optics, intent, and very different interpretations.
The Moment Everything Went Viral
Honestly, the footage is jarring. Musk had just finished a brief, ecstatic speech about the "future of civilization" being assured. He was hyped. He started jumping around—that stiff, vertical hop we’ve seen at other rallies—and then came the gesture.
To a huge portion of the world, it looked like a textbook Nazi salute. In Germany, where that specific arm movement is actually a crime that can land you in prison, the backlash was instant. German news outlets like the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung were blunt, with some commentators arguing it was impossible for a man of Musk’s visibility to be unaware of what that gesture signaled.
But if you ask his supporters, they’ll tell you you’re seeing things. They point to the fact that he hit his chest first. They call it a "Roman salute" or just a "gesture from the heart."
Why did Elon Musk do the nazi salute?
The "why" depends entirely on which side of the political fence you're standing on. There isn't one single answer because Musk himself hasn't given a formal, sit-down explanation. Instead, he did what he usually does: he went to X (formerly Twitter) and mocked the people calling him out.
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"Frankly, they need better dirty tricks," he posted, followed by a sleepy face emoji. He called the "everyone is Hitler" attack "sooo tired."
Basically, his defense is that it wasn't a salute at all. It was a high-energy wave or a "moment of enthusiasm." His fans argue that because he has Asperger’s (a self-diagnosis he shared on Saturday Night Live), he sometimes has "awkward" physical movements that shouldn't be over-analyzed.
But history professors like Ruth Ben-Ghiat from NYU didn't buy that for a second. She called it "a Nazi salute—and a very belligerent one too." The logic there is that at Musk’s level of play, nothing is an accident. Symbols matter.
The Roman Salute vs. The Nazi Salute
This is where things get kind of nerdy and weird. A lot of Musk’s defenders, including his Italian adviser Andrea Stroppa, initially tried to claim it was a "Roman salute."
Here’s the problem: Historians mostly agree the "Roman salute" is a myth.
Dr. Martin M. Winkler, a classics professor who literally wrote the book on this, found zero evidence in ancient Roman art—no statues, no coins, nothing—of Romans actually saluting like that. It was basically invented for 19th-century stage plays and then adopted by Mussolini and Hitler because it looked "cool" and disciplined.
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Even if you want to call it "Roman," the Southern Poverty Law Center points out that the far-right has used that label as a "dog whistle" for decades. It’s a way to use the symbol while maintaining "plausible deniability."
- The ADL's Surprise Defense: In a twist that shocked a lot of people, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) actually stood up for Musk. They posted that it seemed like an "awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm."
- The Counter-Backlash: This led to a civil war within Jewish advocacy groups. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs fired back, saying the ADL was ignoring its own definition of a Nazi salute (which is "an outstretched right arm with the palm down").
Context Matters: The Pattern of Behavior
You can't really talk about this one gesture without looking at the 12 months leading up to it. People weren't just reacting to a hand movement; they were reacting to a year of Musk leaning hard into "Great Replacement" conspiracy theories and endorsing far-right parties like the AfD in Germany.
Just days after the salute controversy, Musk was back on X making Holocaust-themed puns, like "Some people will Goebbels anything down."
When you stack the arm gesture on top of the puns and the political endorsements, critics argue the "it was just an accident" defense starts to feel a bit thin. A YouGov survey found that about 42% of Americans who watched the video felt it was a fascist or Nazi salute, while another 42% thought it was just a "gesture from the heart." We are a country split right down the middle on what we're actually seeing.
Is it actually illegal?
In the United States? No. The First Amendment covers even the most offensive gestures. In Germany or Austria? Absolutely. If Musk had made that exact motion on a stage in Berlin, he’d likely be facing a criminal investigation.
This creates a weird "international incident" vibe every time he does it. He's a global figure with factories in Germany (Giga Berlin), yet he’s using imagery that is legally radioactive in the very places he does business.
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What happens now?
The dust has "settled" in the sense that the news cycle moved on, but the damage to Musk’s brand—or the solidification of it, depending on who you ask—is permanent.
If you're trying to make sense of the "why," don't look for a smoking gun. Musk thrives on ambiguity. He loves being the "edgelord" who can do something provocative and then call you "woke" for noticing it.
Next Steps for the Curious:
To get the full picture, don't just watch the 5-second loop. Watch the full 30 seconds of him dancing and speaking before the gesture. You’ll see the "pounding of the chest" he does right before the arm goes up. It doesn't prove it wasn't a salute, but it gives you the context of his physical state—highly agitated, very excited.
Also, keep an eye on his future interactions with the ADL. Their relationship has been a roller coaster of lawsuits and "grace," and this specific event in January 2025 was the moment that relationship nearly broke for good.
The most actionable thing you can do is learn the history of the Bellamy salute. It was the original way Americans saluted the flag until 1942, when we realized it looked way too much like what was happening in Germany. Knowing that history helps you see why people get so defensive—and why others get so scared—when a powerful man raises his arm in a crowd.