FOLLOWING ACCUSATIONS THAT a repeated gesture performed by Elon Musk at a rally celebrating US President Donald Trump’s inauguration was a Nazi salute, Musk has suggested that other famous figures have done the same thing.

During a speech, Musk slapped his chest with his right hand before extending his arm from the shoulder into the air with a straightened hand, twice.

Many observers noted that this gesture is almost identical to one performed by fascists, most notably Nazis and Mussolini’s blackshirts, who referred to the gesture as the “Roman salute”.

(There is no evidence that the ancient Romans used such a salute).

Elon Musk lets his full shadow slip, throwing up a Nazi salute at Trump's inauguration. Media branding it an "odd gesture". Be serious, that's a full on Sieg Heil. pic.twitter.com/vlmQiZ8zTR

— Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) January 20, 2025

In particular, Musk’s action of hitting his chest first resembled the actions of Adolf Hitler at his rallies, as can be seen at the 35-second mark here.

The action is also used by modern neo-Nazis, including the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.

On his first day in office, Trump commuted or dismissed charges against 1,500 people who were believed to have taken part in the attack on the Capitol on 6 January, 2021, including far-right militia leaders and figures who were found guilty of seditious conspiracy.

Musk is believed to be the world’s richest person and has a famously close relationship with Trump, including being appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk is also reported to have been staying at Trump’s Mar-a-lago resort in order to be closer to him.

Musk recently also endorsed the far-right AfD party in Germany, which has a long history of racist and pro-Nazi members and connections.

Musk has not directly denied that his salute was fascist, though he has addressed such claims on X, the social network he owns.

“Frankly, they need better dirty tricks,” he wrote in response to a post that called the incident “the salute hoax”.

“The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” Musk continued.

Musk also retweeted multiple posts that show still images of other famous figures with their hands in the air, including politicians Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, and the singer Taylor Swift.

Elon Musk was accused of sexual harassment last September after he said he would impregnate Taylor Swift shortly after she endorsed Kamala Harris for president.

“Does this mean Swifties = Hitler youth?” a post retweeted by Musk reads.

“The legacy media is pure propaganda,” Musk wrote next to a collage of US politicians with outstretched arms. “You are the media now.”

However, while these pictures do show the figures with raised straight arms, as you might see in a fascist salute, the videos of these incidents make it clear that no one watching would confuse it with that gesture.

The image of Taylor Swift appears to show her right arm raised in front of her.

However, this image is very misleading.

The image appears to be taken from about the 4.20 mark of this video here, showing Taylor Swift perform on Good Morning America in 2014.

However, rather than raising her right hand, Taylor blows a kiss with her left hand and stretches her hand in front of her, opening and closing her palm. She holds the microphone to her side in her right hand.

A screenshot of this was flipped to make it appear that her right hand is in front of her.

Other videos of the events are similarly revealing. The image of Kamala Harris appears to be taken from around the 36-minute mark of this video of her speech at the 2019 South Carolina Democratic Party Convention.

As she talks about defending civil and voting rights, she points her right hand to the side repeatedly. At one point, her palm flattens for about three seconds. The gesture could not be confused with a fascist salute.

Similarly, the image of US congresswoman Elizabeth Warren is taken from her speech at the 2016 Democratic Convention.

While it is not clear what part of the nearly 20-minute long speech the screenshot was taken from, Warren lifts her hands to the side multiple times, usually to point or wave at someone.

At no point do her gestures resemble a fascist salute.

While there is no proof either way of whether Musk had intended his salute to resemble that of fascists, it is disingenuous to compare footage showing him perform a straight-armed salute with the still images of other famous figures he retweeted.

Musk’s gesture this week has also been celebrated by Irish far-right figures, such as fringe commentator, Keith Woods, who has previously described himself as an anti-semite. 

Woods posted a 5-second clip of Musk’s gesture with the description “Ok maybe woke really is dead.” That post has been seen more than 445,200 times.

“It doesn’t matter what Musk meant,” Justin Barrett, the founder of the National Party, wrote on his Telegram channel, where he speculated that Musk’s gesture might be a result of his documented Ketamine use.

Barrett, who is explicit in his admiration of Adolf Hitler, approved of Musk’s gesture.

“He’s made it modern and okay and that’s not going back in the box,” Barrett wrote.

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