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Tesla CEO Elon Musk's one-armed gesture at Trump's inauguration party raised an uproar among netizens as many compared it to a Nazi salute. After thanking the crowd for "making it happen", Musk proceeded to place his right hand over his heart and thrust the arm into the air, repeating the action to people sitting behind him.
On January 21, 2025, the Tesla CEO retweeted a post by X user @TheRabbitHole84 that claimed "The salute hoax is just another part of the “dirty tricks campaign”. Expressing his opinion on his hand gesture getting blown out of proportion, Musk tweeted:
"Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The “everyone is Hitler” attack is sooo tired"
According to a report by BBC dated January 21, 2024, Elon Musk's gesture being classified as a Nazi salute was used widely as a Roman salute in Italy by Benito Mussolini's Fascist Party and was later adopted by Hitler in Germany. Claire Aubin, a historian well-versed in Nazism within the United States, said Musk's gesture was a "sieg heil", or Nazi salute. Confirming the belief of netizens, Aubin mentioned in a tweet:
"My professional opinion is that you're all right, you should believe your eyes,"
Moreover, it is speculated that Musk's gesture was followed by his opinions on politics shifting to the right as he has recently vocalized his support for Germany's far-right AfD party and Reform UK which is a British anti-immigration party.
"I'm super fired up for the future": Elon Musk mentions in his speech at Trump's inauguration
According to a report by Fox 7 Austin dated January 20, 2025, Elon Musk addressed the crowd on January 20, 2025, after Trump's inauguration at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The Tesla CEO said the 47th President of the U.S.A's victory wasn't ordinary and dubbed it a "fork in the road of human civilization."
He said that there are elections that come and go, however, the 2024 Presidential elections matter. Musk thanked the crowd for "making it happen" adding that the future of civilization was assured. Shedding light on what Trump's administration might do, Elon Musk said that people were going to have safe borders and cities and sensible spending.
He also expressed excitement over SpaceX's Mars program asking the crowd to imagine how awesome it would be to have "American astronauts plant the flag on another planet for the first time."
Additionally, Musk mentioned:
"I'm super fired up for the future. It's gonna be very exciting. As the president said, we're gonna have a golden age. It's gonna be fantastic. And one of the fundamental things, that one of the most American values that that I love, is optimism and feeling like we're gonna, We're gonna make the future good. We're gonna make it good."
Elon Musk is part of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It is a non-governmental commission formed to cut federal bureaucracy and reduce government waste.
However, minutes after Donald Trump was sworn in as President, public interest law firm National Security Counselors sued DOGE claiming that the commission violates rules of federal transparency on grounds of hiring, disclosure, and other practices. Additionally, the lawsuit demands that all DOGE meetings must be open to the public inclusive of those conducted through an electronic medium.
