On January 20, 2025, at a rally celebrating Trump’s presidential victory, Elon Musk
thanked all the attendees for voting for Trump before dancing and waving his arms in the air.
Afterwards, it appears he did a specific hand gesture—the least socially accepted hand gesture.
Not the middle finger, but the Nazi salute. He banged his chest and then put his hand out with his
palm facing down in the exact Nazi salute. He repeated this gesture twice in a row. Afterwards,
Elon Musk said, “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is
assured.” “My heart goes out to you” is a strange phrase to use in this situation. It is usually used
to express sorrow, not thanks. Is this possibly an ominous foreshadowing?
Elon Musk’s salute immediately caused an uproar in the media. Millions attacked Musk
for using such a derogatory and offensive gesture, and many others quickly defended him with a
variety of excuses.

Many were quick to claim that the salute Elon Musk did wasn’t actually Nazi at all, but
was simply a Roman Salute. The Roman Salute people were likely referring to was from The
Oath of the Horatti, a 1784 painting by Jacques-Louis Davis, but no primary source from
Ancient Rome implies they ever did that. Yet there is another excuse. This salute was used in
Fascist Italy, which is likely where Hitler got it from. But that isn’t better at all.
Another common explanation for Musk’s hand gesture is that he is autistic. Even so, if
Musk’s autism causes him to do something so rash, he could certainly do something of that
caliber again for the same reasons, leading to questions of his fitness for participating in the U.S.
government.

Elon Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter) on January 23, firstly, by calling all the media
biased and propagandistic. Three days later, he decided to post a poem of puns as a response.
“Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring
your enemies. His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming!” The
fact that Musk had no real excuse can be somewhat concerning. Musk not giving a real reply
seems to imply that he has no excuse.

Musk’s correlations with Nazis don’t end there. A week after his salute, and two days
before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, he appeared at a far-right German political
rally, and urged them that there was “too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move
beyond that,” as well as that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone
their parents, their great-grandparents.” This sudden bold statement puts Elon Musk’s gesture
more into perspective. Here is even more proof that there is a connection between Musk and
Nazis.

Musk isn’t the only person associated with the Trump Administration to do what appears
to be a Nazi salute. Steve Bannon was Trump’s top advisor during his first term, and was later
fired. Bannon has allegedly been involved in several controversies, ranging from antisemitism to
money laundering. In February 2025, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Bannon
gave a speech and briefly did what seemed to be a Nazi salute, stiff hand, palm down and all, just
for a second. After getting backlash, he declared that it was just a wave.
Overall, the sudden allusions to Nazis made by Musk are alarming, but we really have no
real evidence or idea for what it implies. Really, we have no idea of what’s to come. And though
signs point to something bad, we have nothing conclusive.