Neo-Nazis are celebrating Elon Musk making two Nazi-like salutes during a speech to tens of thousands of President Donald Trump supporters on Monday.
“Elections come and go, some elections are important, some are not, but this one really mattered,” Musk said during his address inside the Capital One Arena in Washington DC, hours after Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. “And I just want to say thank you for making it happen. Thank you.”
At this point, Musk put his right hand on his chest before extending it straight out with his palm facing down and his fingers touching, a gesture widely recognized as the “Roman salute.” Adopted by the fascist movement a century ago, it was most famously used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany, and is to this day associated with the fascist right, especially in Italy.
After he first made the gesture, Musk then turned around to members of the crowd who were seated behind him and, with his back to the camera, repeated the gesture.
“My heart goes out to you,” Musk added.
Musk subsequently shared a clip of his speech on X but at the point where he makes the first salute, the clip posted by Musk cuts away to a shot of the audience before returning to show him making the second salute.
Musk, X, and the Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The response from the neo-Nazi community across the globe was instant and unanimous.
“Incredible things are happening already,” Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, a social media platform popular with antisemites and white supremacists, wrote over a picture of Musk giving the salute.
“The entire neo-Nazi movement seems to be eating it up,” says Nick Martin, an investigative journalist who closely tracks extremist groups and runs the online publication The Informant. “He gave two unmistakable Nazi salutes and they got the message loud and clear.”
“WE ARE FUCKING BACK” the administrator of a Nazi meme channel on Telegram wrote under a clip of Musk giving the salute. Members of the group responded with the lightning bolt emoji, a well-known neo-Nazi reference to the SS.
“I don’t care if this was a mistake, I’m going to enjoy the tears over it,” Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of the American neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, wrote on his Telegram channel under a gif of the Musk salute.
Keith Wood, a prominent far-right influencer from Ireland who has repeatedly praised Musk, responded to the actions by writing on X: “OK maybe woke really is dead.”
Evan Kilgore, a right-wing political commentator, wrote on X: “Holy crap … did Elon Musk just Heil Hitler at the Trump Inauguration Rally in Washington DC… This is incredible.” Kilgore later wrote: “We are so back.”
Kilgore, who is a Holocaust denier, has worked as an ambassador for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. The conservative activist group hosted a pre-inauguration ball on Sunday evening that featured JD Vance, who was inaugurated as vice-president today, and the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
Musk has embraced far-right ideology and figures across the globe, including jailed Islamphobic activist Tommy Robinson in the UK, over the last two years. Most recently, he has promoted the German far-right political party Alternative for Germany. In an hour-long interview with the party’s leader Alice Weidel earlier this month, Musk agreed with the wild conspiracy theory that Hitler was a communist.
