Elon Musk made a repeated straight-arm gesture during a Trump inauguration celebration on January 20, 2025. Many viewers and some historians called it a Nazi or fascist salute; the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) described it as an awkward gesture of enthusiasm. The movement is visible in footage, but the available reporting does not establish Musk’s private intent.
What Musk did at the rally
Musk spoke at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., during events celebrating Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Reuters and the Associated Press reported that he thumped his right hand over his heart, extended his arm outward and upward with his palm facing down, then turned and made a similar gesture toward the crowd behind him. He said, “My heart goes out to you.”
The gesture happened twice, a detail that became part of the debate. The movement and the surrounding words are observable; what Musk intended by them is a separate question.
Why people called it a Nazi or fascist salute
The resemblance to a documented salute
The Guardian reported that the ADL defines the Nazi salute as raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down. Many viewers saw a resemblance between that description and Musk’s movement. NYU history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat wrote, “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.” American University professor Kurt Braddock, quoted by the AP, said “people shouldn’t doubt what they saw.”
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Why other observers disagreed about intent
The ADL offered a different interpretation in a contemporaneous statement: “It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.” Jared Holt, a senior research analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told the AP, “I’m skeptical it was on purpose.”
These accounts show a disagreement about meaning, not about whether Musk made the movement. His words of thanks were cited by some as support for a benign reading; the repeated gesture and its political setting contributed to alarm for others. Neither the gesture’s appearance nor the surrounding speech, on its own, resolves his intent.
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What Musk said afterward—and what he did not say
Reuters reported that Musk responded to criticism on X: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.” PolitiFact found that he had dismissed the accusations but had not stated what he intended by the gesture in the material it reviewed.
PolitiFact also debunked a screenshot circulating as a Musk post that claimed the MAGA movement would “succeed in all the ways Nazi Germany failed to.” The post was fabricated, not a clarification from Musk.
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What the reaction can and cannot establish
The AP reported that right-wing extremists celebrated the gesture. That response helps explain why the episode drew wider concern, but it does not prove what Musk meant. Reuters also reported that Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Jewish community in Munich and Upper Bavaria, called the gesture “highly irritating.” She said she was more concerned by Musk’s political positions, his support for the AfD, and his involvement in Germany’s parliamentary election campaign.
The controversy is evidence of sharply different readings of a gesture and of the political reactions it prompted. It is not, by itself, proof of Musk’s beliefs or of what a government will do. The headline phrase “fascism is coming” should therefore be understood as a concern expressed by some observers, not a finding established by this incident.
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