Elon Musk has responded to claims that he gave a ‘Nazi-style’ salute while on stage at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The Tesla tycoon, 53, joined a string of celebrities and politicians in Washington on Monday (20 January) to show their support for the new President as power officially changed hands.
Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the USA and made a powerful speech laying out his promises as leader – which garnered a viral reaction from former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
But his big day has been overshadowed by controversy after Musk made a series of movements which many people have deemed as ‘fascist’.
As well as being seen making a bizarre gesture after Trump confirmed his pledge to send US astronauts to Mars, the Space X boss later appeared to make other strange motions.
He’s found himself in hot water as viewers watching the inauguration claim to have saw the billionaire making a salute which many people deemed as fascist during his speech.
While on stage at the Capitol One Arena, Musk was seen excitedly discussing the prospect of planting an American flag on Mars.
He then appeared to thump his chest, before his right arm shot up in an angular motion, while saying he felt the emotion for the space plan in his ‘heart’.
Musk then turned away from the audience and replicated the gesture, this time towards a US flag which was draped over the stage while telling the crowd: “My heart goes out to you.”
“It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured,” he said.
During live coverage of the event, CNN anchor Erin Burnett was heard saying: “Standing ovation for Elon Musk. By far the biggest reception of the day. You saw him come out with that odd-looking salute.”
Her colleague Kasie Hunt also pointed out that the gesture ‘was evocative of things that we have seen through history’ and ‘not something you typically see at American rallies’, the Independent reports.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Nazi salute is defined as ‘raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down’.
After receiving a host of backlash on social media, Musk has now spoken out about the controversy.
Elon Musk does what looks like a Hitler salute after talking of victory at Trump inauguration, thanking supporters for assuring “the future of civilisation” pic.twitter.com/xp0kmJ5dFQ
— James Jackson (@derJamesJackson) January 20, 2025
In a post shared on his platform X today (21 January), he responded to a tweet which read: “The salute hoax is just another part of the ‘dirty tricks campaign’.”
Quoting the original post, Musk wrote: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
Another user asked to ‘retire the calling people a Nazi thing’, to which Musk responded: “Yeah exactly,” alongside a yawning emoji.
Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the USA and made a powerful speech laying out his promises as leader of the nation, which garnered a viral reaction from former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
