Musk’s Nazi Salute

Symbols matter.

So, a friend texts me that Elon Musk gave a Nazi salute, so I checked out X.

And, indeed,

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1881433327779168614

This is just one of those things that a person has to know what they are doing. And for anyone who wants to play, “it’s just a joke card,” I would point them to my post, “Just Joking.”

One can say that this is just Musk “owning the libs” but it is no different than him walking out with a KKK hood on and then saying it was for the lulz. It should be unacceptable behavior.

Here’s broader context, which is weird enough insofar as he almost sounds like he won the election (which I guess he kind of did). The rhetoric is also waaaay over the top.

FILED UNDER: 2024 Election, The Presidency, US Politics, ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Kathy says:

    When people show you who they are…

    20
  2. DK says:

    Unleash the norms! That’ll teach these MAGA Nazis!

    Anyway, fascists gonna fascist, and we were warned.

    15
  3. @DK: The fun part about all of this is that some readers didn’t like that I pointed out that Trump was a fascist and yet others want to poke me for talking about norms.

    Put another way: I was one of the ones who warned about fascism, but am also warning about how the preemptive pardons damage norms and further empower fascists. Fun, isn’t it?

    9
  4. Not the IT Dept. says:

    I predict that within very few weeks the preemptive pardons will be the equivalent of her emails.

    7
  5. DK says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    Fun, isn’t it?

    Ha! I don’t envy you. It’s a hard ethical space you choose to occupy, but somebody’s gotta do it.

    4
  6. Daryl says:

    Today an indelible stain is placed on the history of our nation.

    10
  7. Daryl says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: I, for one, am shocked and embarrassed by the pre-emotive pardons.

    2
  8. CSK says:

    @Daryl:

    A literal shitstain.

    1
  9. Mikey says:

    I thought my wife (born and raised in Nuremberg) was going to cry when she saw this. If anyone understands what this portends, it’s someone from the city Hitler intended as the seat of his “Thousand Year Reich.”

    We’re not even five hours into the next four years and a man who sits at the President’s right hand and will have an office in the actual White House is throwing Nazi salutes. May whatever gods exist help us.

    8
  10. DK says:

    @Mikey:

    We’re not even five hours into the next four years and a man who sits at the President’s right hand and will have an office in the actual White House is throwing Nazi salutes.

    Nazis in the White House. Read that twice. That sound you’re hearing are the bodies of American legends named FDR (Dem), Truman (Dem), and Eisenhower (Republican) all rattling in their tombs.

    Nazis in the White House, but let’s take to our fainting couches over a Democrat using his legal authority to help shield named targets of MAGA’s fascist filth:
    a summary of the last decade in American politics.

    And a preview of the next four years of American punditry. Only four, if we’re lucky.

    21
  11. Gustopher says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    The fun part about all of this is that some readers didn’t like that I pointed out that Trump was a fascist and yet others want to poke me for talking about norms.

    “If both sides are mad, you must be doing something right!”
    — assorted idiots.

    6
  12. Gustopher says:

    I am shocked that the wealthy white man from apartheid era South Africa would have these pro-German views.

    10
  13. al Ameda says:

    Well, there’s your 1936 Nuremberg Rally Vibe for the day.

    8
  14. Jc says:

    @Not the IT Dept.: once tomorrow begins….sheeeiit. The pardons will be the last thing people will talk about. There will be a firestorm of hot topics the media will be scrambling to cover, report, parse, understand…gonna be a show for sure.

    2
  15. becca says:

    I just read this over in comments at LGM on this topic…

    Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
    ― Jean-Paul Sartre

    Applying this to white supremists and internet trolls.

    9
  16. ptfe says:

    I’m not surprised to see him Nazi saluting. Elon wants to think he’s a hilarious wannabe dictator haha just kidding, but really the Smartest Man Anywhere who should actually be in charge of everything because he’s so fucking brilliant.

    What also disgusts me is CNN using the absurd “Department of Government Efficiency” nonsense. DOGE is a bullshit non-organization. It’s not official in literally any way, just a bunch of assholes wanking each other over their collective brilliance. Might as well put “Department of Jerking Off”, but because our sad media must cede language to the Right, CNN just straps it on and acts like that’s not exactly what it is.

    What a bunch of clowns.

    21
  17. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: The system has failed. It is a long road back. I hope you live long enough to see your faith in systems and the goodness of people vindicated. I expect that the vacillation between caretaker governments that will keep the lid on things and fascist regimes that will wreak havoc on the caretakers will continue for the remainder of my life.

    At least I hope they will. If the GOP majority holds in 2026 and there’s a JD Vance administration in 2028, all bets are off.

    8
  18. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Mikey: What makes you think that there are any gods that care about the US committing suicide? Gods that won’t magically spare islands in the tracks of tsunamis and hurricanes are certainly not going to expend much concern over self-inflicted wounds.

    2
  19. Lucysfootball says:

    For anyone who has doubts, go to Yahoo or Google and type in nazi salute and then hit images. Musk did a nazi salute two times.

    3
  20. Mister Bluster says:

    May whatever gods exist help us.

    No gods exist.
    There will be no supernatural assistance to rid us of evil.

    First they came for the Communists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Communist
    Then they came for the Socialists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Socialist
    Then they came for the trade unionists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a trade unionist
    Then they came for the Jews
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Jew
    Then they came for me
    And there was no one left
    To speak out for me
    Pastor Martin Niemöller

    9
  21. MarkedMan says:

    @ptfe:

    Elon wants to think he’s a hilarious wannabe dictator haha just kidding

    This idea that Musk and Trump are just owning the libs is incredibly dangerous. They really are fascists and they have every intention of taking that path.

    10
  22. Paine says:

    One chucklehead online is defending Musk by stating he has aspergers and this was merely him being caught up in the moment. Quite an insult to all those aspies out there who manage to get through each day without throwing up a nazi salute.

    20
  23. Kingdaddy says:

    As has been the case with many moments in the Trump era, it’s time to cast a spotlight on the enablers (who often pretend they’re bystanders). No, not the MAGA true believers, or the villains themselves, but the people who have given the villains power and influence. In Musk’s case, I have to say to the boards of “governance” (cue hysterical laughter) of the three companies that Musk nominally leads:

    What the hell is wrong with you? Why do you give this idiot the opportunity to pretend to run three companies simultaneously, while he clearly spends his time with his head in a right-wing toilet, spreading ketamine-fueled nonsense? And you pay him billions of dollars for the privilege?

    He’s not the Smartest Many Anywhere, to borrow @ptfe:’s phrase. He didn’t really found the companies he “leads,” and he tangibly, undeniably wrecked one of them. As board members, what’s your job, exactly? Clearly, like Musk himself, they’re happily cashing their checks, not handling their responsibilities. And they’ve directly helped create this monster.

    Whenever someone says, “We need someone to run America as if it were a business,” I think they should be required to spend the next two years as a Xitter employee.

    14
  24. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Mister Bluster:

    I really wish people would pick a better poem than that Niemöller poem, because Niemöller deserves to be forgotten

    Like most people, I was taught the Niemöller poem as a warning against apathy and assumed it was the work of someone who mostly just ignored the rise of Hitler and who later regretted not doing enough early enough.

    This because it was never explained who Niemöller actually was: he was actually a major early supporter of Hitler and a self-proclaimed anti-Semite who only started having a problem with Nazism when he later fell out of favor.

    He didn’t just “not speak out”. It was more like “First they came for the communists and I helped them round up the communists because fuck the communists”

    The poem is the equivalent of Pence writing a poem disparaging Trump on January 7th.

    9
  25. Daryl says:

    @Mister Bluster:
    History is replete with people that have risen to the task and rid us of evil. Lincoln and slavery. FDR and Churchill defeating Nazism.
    There is no one coming to exorcise us of this. We are the evil.

    5
  26. Paul L. says:
  27. @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    your faith in systems and the goodness of people vindicated

    I guess I have more work to do, as I have been pretty relentless in my arguing that the system needs a lot of reform and that I never rely solely on the goodness of people to guarantee good governance 😉

    I do have faith in democracy as a form of government, but lament the state of ours.

    3
  28. @Paul L.: Show is the whole video. Elon was not waving, and you and your internet friends know it.

    Own what you are supporting.

    22
  29. Raoul says:

    The ADL likens the salutes as some kind of awkward exuberance. I think the ADL needs to get out of the business they have chosen if they cannot outright condemn open Nazism.

    12
  30. Lucysfootball says:

    @Raoul: Beyond disgusting. Here is their statement:
    “This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety,” wrote the ADL in a statement. “It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.”

    The organization continued, “In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.”

    Don’t worry, I’m sure the ADL will condemn any 18-year-old college student who attends a pro-Palestinian demonstration.

    12
  31. Kathy says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    “How hard is it to say nazis are bad?” Barack Obama

    “For nazis and nazi sympathizers, it’s very hard.” Kathy.

    10
  32. @Lucysfootball: This feels like they are in denial and don’t want to have to deal with reality, so are pretending there is another explanation.

    1
  33. Erik says:

    Musk is basically the live action version of 4Chan, and anyone responsible for giving him any kind of government function or platform deserves every bit of condemnation for anything he does

    5
  34. drj says:

    Also, the audience clapped and cheered.

    It’s not just Musk.

    6
  35. Kurtz says:

    @DK:

    Nazis in the White House. Read that twice. That sound you’re hearing are the bodies of American legends named FDR (Dem), Truman (Dem), and Eisenhower (Republican) all rattling in their tombs.

    A few years ago, some idiot tweeted a picture of a page from some unidentified book. The book seemed to have been a recently published history of Soviet-US-UK negotiations at the end of WWII. But I don’t know for sure, because the person didn’t bother to say what it was.

    Anyway, there were some lines highlighted. The tweet said, “so FDR was an actual Communist.”

    Prominent Birchers accused Eisenhower (?!?) of being a Communist. Then denied they did.

    Not sure about Truman, but 2/3 says something. Especially considering that for FDR, it’s still a thing.

    See, the only reason the Birchers backed off was because their elected allies, who actually had to do things, convinced them that wild accusations about Eisenhower did no one any favors.

    Now look how things are.

    4
  36. Erik says:

    Also, the rule of goats applies

    2
  37. Kevin says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: That’s been true of the ADL for a while. They seem to prioritize protecting Israel over protecting Jews, and don’t seem to realize that those they’ve aligned themselves with aren’t interested in protecting either.

    3
  38. Kurtz says:

    I checked out the thread under the last cited tweet in the OP; is this habit of mine an example of self-harm?

    matrixwindex
    @matrixwindex
    ·
    2h
    Only a complete idiot or dishonest Dem party hack actually thinks Elon did a Sieg Heil.

    @matrixwindex’s avatar is a 1984 logo.

    Media literacy is weak with this one.

    Please, someone let me out of this car. I don’t care if it’s going 100 miles an hour. I will tuck and roll.

    3
  39. rondo1342 says:

    This just might the stupidest thing I’ve ever read here, more stupid than “Trump’s a fascist!!!1!1!” When even the ADL (no friends of Musk) says it is NOT a nazi salute, then it’s damn near certain it’s not.

    https://x.com/ADL/status/1881474892022919403

    1
  40. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: My apologies to you, too (I seem to be stepping on a lot of toes today 🙁 ), I was trying to address that your faith in systems is much stronger than mine combined with an optimism about people that I don’t share. (Few people hold as jaundiced a view of humanity as I have, so I almost always assume that people hope for better outcomes than I expect.)

    1
  41. Liberal Capitalist says:

    I watched the full video up there, with the sound off.

    It just looks like President Musk is very excited about his administration and the next 4 years.

    2
  42. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Lucysfootball: I will concede that the still shot at the header of the thread looks like an awkward gesture, but the tape shows clearly that the still shot is not as it appears to be.

    1
  43. Kevin says:

    @rondo1342: I don’t know if you’re ignorant or trolling, but the ADL has been cozying up to Musk for at least a year. It’s not clear why, but there have been a series of attacks by Musk on the ADL over the past year, and their response has been anemic at best. Employees have left the ADL over it.

    7
  44. DK says:

    @Kurtz: “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a-hole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad, and might even prove useful, or that he’s America’s Hitler.” – JD Vance

    Trump: “I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had” (The Atlantic)

    Trump posts video referencing ‘unified Reich’ if reelected (CNN)

    Roger Stone Posts, Deletes Meme of Trump Team Wearing Swastika Space Force Logo (The Wrap)

    John Kelly tells NYT Trump said: “Hitler did some good things” (Axios)

    1990 report: Ivana Trump told her lawyer Donald Trump kept Hitler speeches beside bed (CNN)

    Donald Trump Retweets Apparent Neo-Nazi Supporter (NBC)

    Seems like the wild accusations are coming from inside the house. I’m old enough to remember when Hillary Clinton, Mark Udall and others who warned Republicans would soon overturn Roe v Wade were mocked for the accusation.

    Now look.

    One of the core tasks of fascism is Orwellian gaslighting, where words don’t mean what they mean, and where the actions you see you didn’t really see.

    Thus, you can have in America 2025 a political movement that repeatedly references Hitler and amplifies Nazi imagery, but if you call those involved Nazis then you’re the crazy one. Right.

    Most (thankfully not all) of the majoritarian demographic in this country is hostile to raw, unvarnished truth-telling and fond of this sort of gaslighting. Which is why they vote like they do. Yet black Americans — often subjects or targets of this sort of gaslighting throughout US history — keep on keepin’ on calling a spade a spade. Why the age of Eisenhower produced giants like MLK, and why we still vote against the Nazis at a near ~90% clip.

    The Nazis and skinheads online are cheering and celebrating Elon Musk tonight. They know what’s up, even as the blind boiling frogs of America demand the rest of us join them in calling a spade a fork. We decline.

    13
  45. Kevin says:

    Having watched the video, I have no idea what Musk was doing. It didn’t look like my understanding of what a Nazi salute is, but I can’t say it wasn’t, either. The man was always awkward and is now drug-addled as well; I don’t know if Musk could have told you what he was doing.

    And there are enough horrible things he’s definitely done that I find it hard to worry about this one in particular. Horrible people were celebrating Trump’s inauguration with or without the salute.

    6
  46. Barry says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: “but am also warning about how the preemptive pardons damage norms and further empower fascists. ”

    Steve, are you trying to imply that Dems caused Trump’s pardons? If not, then what?

    1
  47. Barry says:

    @Raoul: “I think the ADL needs to get out of the business they have chosen if they cannot outright condemn open Nazism.”

    Or flushed down the toilet of history, perhaps.

  48. Barry says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: (about the ADL having no problems with Musk’s Nazi salute)
    “This feels like they are in denial and don’t want to have to deal with reality, so are pretending there is another explanation.”

    ADL is quite happy to hop in bed with full fascists.

    4
  49. @Barry:

    Steve, are you trying to imply that Dems caused Trump’s pardons?

    Not implying that, no.

    1
  50. Kurtz says:

    @DK:

    Nooooooooo. I wasn’t claiming you were making wild accusations.

  51. JKB says:

    Elon Musk may be able to sue CNN into bankruptcy. They specifically removed the context.

    And then, there are these “salutes” which were apparently acceptable to the yellow journalists

    2
  52. Gustopher says:

    @Kevin: It’s a Modern American Nazi Salute, a slightly modified version of the Classic.

    Here’s a post with footage of both:
    https://bsky.app/profile/kensheetz.bsky.social/post/3lg7fctbcmk22

    This is what our friends on the right defend. Nazis doing Nazi shit.

    4
  53. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    I was one of the ones who warned about fascism, but am also warning about how the preemptive pardons damage norms and further empower fascists.

    Honey, the Nazis are here, show them our norms.

    9
  54. Barry says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: “Not implying that, no.”

    Sorry.

    1
  55. charontwo says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    This feels like they are in denial

    That is not my view, I say they are trying to stay in Trump/Musk good graces.

    @Gustopher:

    Thank you, good link.

  56. charontwo says:

    Some context:

    Link

    BERLIN — Roughly 200,000 users logged onto the social media platform X on Thursday to listen to the world’s richest man court Alice Weidel, the chancellor candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

    Elon Musk’s recent endorsement of the party, known by its German initials AfD, and Thursday’s heavily publicized livestreamed chat have infuriated Germany’s other political parties as they campaign for elections slated for Feb. 23.

    At the start of the livestream, Musk introduced Weidel as “the leading candidate to run Germany,” even though she has little chance of becoming chancellor. While the AfD is polling in second place, no other political party is willing to govern in coalition with it.

    Musk had only words of praise for the politician.

    “I think Alice Weidel is a very reasonable person,” he said. “Nothing outrageous is being proposed, just common sense.”

    1
  57. Joe says:

    Nazis in the White House. Read that twice

    @DK: This is an appropriate bookend to Confederate flags in the Capitol from the end of Trump’s last administration.

    6
  58. Mikey says:

    @charontwo:

    While the AfD is polling in second place, no other political party is willing to govern in coalition with it.

    Because unlike America, there are still enough Germans who remember.

    4
  59. Chip Daniels says:

    Context:
    https://bsky.app/profile/auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social/post/3lg7a7qkrcf2a
    This is what Musk and the Trumpists are leading us towards.

    2
  60. becca says:

    @JKB: yeah, you know cuz Miss Musk is such a free speech absolutist. WATB
    If cnn and msnbc and faux went under the world would be all the better. Cable news as 24 hour outrage machines led the charge to crazytown.
    We haven’t had cable since the Iraq war fiasco.

    1
  61. Daryl says:

    @JKB:
    It’s amazing to me what the cult members will excuse. Serial sexual assault. Multiple felonies. Serial adultery. Bribery. Incitement. Incompetence. Now Nazi salutes.
    One of the prime indicators of cult involvement is the belief that the cult leaders can do no wrong.

    10
  62. @Michael Reynolds: Does picking at me make you feel better about what we are collectively watching?

    Is it really so impossible to note that upholding norms can be part of a broader fight against all of this?

    We can debate the pardons, but let’s not pretend that all I have said is that norms will save us. I mean, each post is a few hundred words in a sea of broader context, especially for a years-long reader such as yourself, yes?

    3
  63. @JKB: Show us the videos where those folks stuck their arms straight out in a salute.

    You fucking well know that simply having an arms extended is not the issue. Capturing part of a wave or an extended arm is not the same thing.

    8
  64. Rob1 says:

    Musk did assume the name Kekius Maximus on X, so his gesture is perhaps referencing the Roman salute —- which Wiki also calls the “fascist salute.” And of course, there’s the connection to Pepe the Frog, Kekistan, and the gamer-bro incel culture of loathing.

    All in all, an expression of immaturity and adolescent insolence, and certainly not leadership material.

    4
  65. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:
    I’m genuinely sorry if you think I’m picking at you. I saw it more as a tease, and not just aimed at you, most of the commenters here seem to agree with you, including people I like and admire, a set which very definitely includes you.

    3
  66. Mikey says:

    @JKB: Oh, please do fuck off with this gaslighting bullshit.

    6
  67. @Michael Reynolds: Thanks for saying so. I am no doubt being a bit sensitive as I continue to digest yesterday.

    2
  68. charontwo says:

    Tiedrich-what the fuck is this

    the media fails its first test of Donny’s second presidency

    Good read, with gallows humor.

    the worthless scribblers of the corporate-controlled press are a big reason we’re in this unholy mess. they had one job — to accurately report on the two candidates running for president in 2024 — and they whiffed it. what they did instead was sanewash the shit out of Donny Convict’s blithering. as a result, a bunch of bamboozled low-information nitwits — who had no fucking clue what they were actually voting for — pulled the lever for fascism.

    based on their coverage of the events around Donny Convict’s first day in office, it looks like the media is going to keep right on failing us.

    Donny’s second presidency was barely a few hours old when the world’s richest pantload went full fascist during his speech at a post-inaugural rally.

    now, if you thought you were watching a right-wing oligarch give a clear sieg heil — the Nazi salute — our media would like you to stop believing your lying eyes. because what you saw, according to these gaslighting shitweasels, was a “controversial gesture” that “sparked debate.”

    1
  69. Rob1 says:

    Every comment references Musk’s “salute.” But go back to a still photo and look at Musk’s face, in that moment a frozen grimace of defiance. Speaks louder paired with the arm gesture. Power over the people.

    3
  70. Mikey says:

    @charontwo: Another interesting bit, further down in Tiedrich’s piece:

    Right-Wing Extremists Are Abuzz Over Musk’s Straight-Arm Salute

    Thomas Sewell, an Australia-based neo-Nazi, whose Telegram avatar is a picture of himself throwing a Roman salute, posted the video of Musk calling it a “Donald Trump White Power moment.”

    The Proud Boys Ohio chapter posted to a clip of the Musk video to its Telegram channel with the text, “Hail Trump!”

    A chapter of the white nationalist group White Lives Matter posted a note of appreciation on Telegram, along with a picture of a banner drop the group had previously executed at a freeway overpass reading: “Elon Musk Stop White Genocide.” The Telegram caption read, “Thanks for (sometimes) hearing us, Elon. The White Flame will rise again.”

    The cowed major media, and the dissembling fascism enablers (see here and here), will equivocate and deny and gaslight about what this was, but the no-shit Nazis? They have no problem at all acknowledging what Musk did. They’re PROUD of it.

    3
  71. DK says:

    @Mikey: Unsurprising. Our punditry still won’t call Trump’s J6 terrorists, “terrorists.”

    1
  72. Gavin says:

    They want to be fascist, but don’t want to own being fascist.

    They like the effing around. The finding out, not so much.

    1