On Monday, January 20th, Musk thanks the audience for “making it happen”, before he puts his hand over his heart and then thrusting his arm out, similar to the Nazi salute. Elon’s fan’s quickly came to defend him, claiming he did the Roman salute.

On the social media platform, X, which Musk owns, people debated whether he did the Nazi salute or not. According to a BBC article, “…The SpaceX and Tesla chief posted on X: ‘Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.'” (Wright, January 21st)

Andrea Stroppa, a confidant of Musk, was reported by Italian media to have posting a clip of Elon with the caption: “Roman empire is back starting from the Roman salute. The Roman salute was used in Italy by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party, before being later used by Adolf Hitler in Germany.

According to The Guardian, ” Stroppa later posted that the gesture was “simply Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying ‘I want to give my heart to you’.” (Kassam, January 21st)

The gesture is in result of Musks politics increasingly shifting to the right. Elon has made statements supporting Germany’s far-right AfD party, as well as British anti-immigration party Reform UK.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was asked about the comparison to the Nazi salute, which is banned in Germany, at the Davos at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting.

In response, the Chancellor states in a BBC article, “‘We have the freedom of speech in Europe and in Germany,’ he said.

‘… what we do not accept is if this is supporting extreme right positions. And this is what I would like to repeat again’.” (Kassam, January 21st)

Musk has became close to Trump and has been tapped to co-lead what the president has termed the Department of Government Efficiency.