Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk is facing sharp criticism after he appeared to make two Nazi-style salutes Monday at an inauguration event.
Onstage at Capital One Arena, Mr. Musk thanked a crowd of President Trump’s supporters for “making it happen” before slapping his chest and extending his right arm diagonally upwards with his palm facing down.
The crowd cheered, and Mr. Musk performed another similar arm gesture toward the crowd behind him.
He said, “My heart goes out to you.”
Musk critics quickly latched onto the clip, accusing the owner of X of signaling to White supremacists.
“Elon Musk lets his full shadow slip, throwing up a Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration,” independent journalist Jake Hanrahan posted on X. “Media branding it an ‘odd gesture.’ Be serious, that’s a full on Sieg Heil.”
New York University history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat agreed that Mr. Musk had performed a Nazi-style salute.
“Historian of fascism here,” she posted. “It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.”
Mr. Musk brushed off claims he was signaling to Nazis with his gestures, saying his opponents are trying to smear him.
“Frankly, they need better dirty tricks,” he posted on X. “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
The Anti-Defamation League seemed to take Mr. Musk’s side. In a statement posted Monday, the ADL said that while Mr. Musk’s gestures may have been erratic, they were not Nazi salutes.
“It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again we appreciate that people are on edge,” the ADL said. “In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning.”
The salute controversy is not the first time that Mr. Musk has been called a Nazi. Earlier this month he was accused of flirting with fascists after he met with Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland party. The two had a conversation on X’s Spaces, where Ms. Weidel claimed that Adolf Hitler was “a communist” and Mr. Musk agreed.
Mr. Musk received significant backlash for the conversation and his support for AfD, with some claiming that he was supporting a far-right party with ties to ex-Nazis.
Mr. Musk had called AfD Germany’s “last spark of hope” and defended the party against Nazi allegations. Last year, he wrote an opinion piece in Germany’s Welt am Sonntag supporting AfD and Ms. Weidel. In the article, Mr. Musk said the fact that Ms. Weidel is in a long-term relationship with another woman makes any Nazi allegations directed at AfD ridiculous.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.