Musk’s apparent Nazi salute controversy overshadows Trump’s inauguration

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s gesture during a speech has sparked backlash, with Spain’s deputy prime minister announcing she would resign from using the platform after it was likened to a Nazi salute.

Elon Musk has sparked controversy over a gesture he repeatedly made on Donald Trump’s inauguration day that has been likened to a Nazi salute, causing uproar and disbelief as well as justifications for the South African billionaire’s actions.

At a post-inauguration rally on Monday, Musk thanked US President Trump’s supporters by putting his palm to his chest and extending a stiff right arm toward the crowd.

“I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” the owner of SpaceX, X and Tesla told those gathered before repeating the gesture.

Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister and Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz said she would remove her account from X in response to the gesture, calling the image “stark”.

“For months now, Elon Musk has been using X for political ends. It has stopped being a tool for communication, or a social network, and has become a propaganda mechanism that uses its algorithm to favour some ideas over others and, by doing so, affect public opinion,” Díaz said.

Spain’s Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun also left X in protest later on Tuesday.

Musk also came under fire in Germany, where he made headlines for openly supporting the far-right AfD party and interviewing its co-leader Alice Weidel on his platform.

“Such a gesture, given his already known proximity to right-wing populists in the fascist tradition, must worry every Democrat,” German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach of the centre-left SPD party said in a post on X on Monday night.

‘Awkward moment of enthusiasm’

Among experts, opinion is somewhat split on whether the gesture could be described as an outright Nazi salute. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University, said on X: “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.”

Israeli academic and activist Shai Davidai wrote on Instagram that “doing a Nazi salute is never ok.”

“The issue isn’t whether or not you’re an antisemite, the issue is whether or not you’re normalising that which shouldn’t be normalised,” Davidai said.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an international NGO known for its campaigning against antisemitism, defines the Nazi or Hitler salute as “raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down.”

According to the ADL, in Nazi Germany the salute was often “often accompanied by chanting or shouting ‘Heil Hitler’ or ‘Sieg Heil,’” while “neo-Nazis and white supremacists have utilised it in the aftermath of World War II”.

The ADL said in a statement on Monday that Musk made an “awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute.”

“We appreciate that people are on edge. In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath,” the group said.

Meanwhile, right-wing extremists and nationalists embraced Musk’s actions on Monday, accidental or not.

The leader of the US neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe reposted the clip of Musk writing, “I don’t care if this was a mistake. I’m going to enjoy the tears over it.”

Andrew Torba, owner of extremist platform Gab, said: “Incredible things are happening already.”

For his part, Musk retweeted a post reading: “Can we please retire the calling people a Nazi thing,” responding with, “Yeah exactly.”