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Elon Musk sparked outrage with the one-handed gesture he gave during a speech celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Musk thanked the crowd for “making it happen”, before placing his right hand over his heart and extending that same arm into the air in front of him. Then he turned and repeated what was behind him.
Many on X, the social network he owns, have likened the move to a Nazi salute.
In response, Musk wrote on X: “Honestly, they need better dirty tricks. The attack of ‘everyone is Hitler’ is very tired.”
Musk, the world’s richest man and a close friend of President Trump, was speaking at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC when he made the announcement.
“My heart goes out to you. I thank you that the future of civilization is guaranteed,” said the 53-year-old, after giving a second salute.
There was a recent backlash on social media.
Claire Aubin, a historian who works on the Nazis in the United States, said Musk’s actions were a “sieg heil”, or Nazi salute.
“My professional opinion is that you are right, you have to believe what you see,” he wrote on X, referring to those who believe this means Nazism.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at New York University, said: “The historian of fascism here.
Andrea Stroppa, a close friend of Musk who connected him with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was reported by Italian media to have posted a video of Musk with the words: “The Roman Empire has returned from the Roman salute”.
The Roman salute was widely used in Italy by the Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini, later adopted by Adolf Hitler in Germany.
Stroppa later resigned, Italian media reported. He later wrote that “that sign, which some have mistaken for a Nazi salute, is Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying, ‘I want to give you my heart’,” he said.
“This is what he said into the microphone. ELON SHUTS EVERYONE OFF!”
This comes as Musk’s politics have shifted to the right. He has recently spoken out in support of Germany’s far-right AfD and Britain’s anti-immigration party Reform UK.
Appearing in Davos at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was asked about comparisons to the Nazi uniform, which is banned in Germany.
“We have freedom of speech in Europe and in Germany,” he said.
“… what we don’t agree with is that it supports the best positions. And this is what I want to repeat again.”
But others have defended Musk, including the Anti-Defamation League, an organization founded to combat anti-Semitism.
“It seems that Elon Musk did something unpleasant during a fun time, not a Nazi salute,” the group wrote on X.
Musk has been one of Trump’s closest allies and was tapped to lead what the president called the Department of Public Works.
