The first controversy of President Trump’s second term began before his inauguration celebrations even ended. While delivering remarks to supporters in Washington, D.C., Elon Musk, the tech mega-billionaire and a close confidante of the President, thumped his chest and then extended his right arm at a raised angle, in a gesture that resembled the infamous Sieg Heil Salute used by the Nazis.
The reaction was swift. Horrified observers accused Musk of being a Nazi and vehemently bemoaned the normalization of fascist symbolism. Just as vehemently, defenders rallied around Musk: he has autism, he gets awkward in front of large crowds, he was simply expressing his heartfelt appreciation. His supporters were offended by the very accusation, asserting that it cheapens the memory of those who perished.
Is Elon Musk a Nazi? I don’t think so, certainly not by the technical definition of the term. He has demonstrated exceptional support for Israel, especially in the wake of October 7. He went and toured Auschwitz to understand the horrors inflicted on our people during the Holocaust – although, it must be noted, he was spurred to the visit after responding approvingly to an antisemitic post on Twitter (now X). He has done far more than many who performatively condemned the salute after being silent in the face of pro-Hamas student protestors for fourteen months. Nevertheless, I do believe he performed the Sieg Heil, with intent. It is important to understand what led him to do the salute, and why, despite his bona fides, we Jews ought to care.
To start with the gesture itself, his was not the same as the snapshots some have offered of other prominent individuals with their arms extended, which are out-of-context split seconds in time. It was a deliberate motion, and was preceded by a chest thump, a flourish that can be seen at neo-Nazi rallies today. While he did say – after performing the salute twice – “my heart goes to you,” this line seemed divorced from the salute. And his excitement centered on the exclamation that “the future of civilization is assured,” which, while noble to hear, has become a preoccupation of many in the extreme ranks of the conservative movement.
And Elon Musk is, increasingly, an acolyte of the darkest corners of the far right, imbibing sinister notions on racial eugenics, ethnic fascism, and other pernicious canards espoused in unmoderated chat rooms and edgelord forums. There are subgroups to this Internet society, but broadly they embrace imaginary notions of “sigma male” masculinity; their heroes exist in media depictions of anarchistic fascism, like American History X, Peaky Blinders, and the Joker films; they see themselves as the victims of a multicultural, liberal society. American History X, as it happens, features a clip of a chest-thumping Nazi salute (pictured here side-by-side with screen shots of Musk’s gesture; of course, online, you can view the full videos of both, and also view videos of Nazis thumping their chest and then making the Sieg Heil salute).
These ideas have emerged as part of Musk’s public persona over the last half decade. He supports the “suspected extremist” (to use the Washington Post’s phrase) far-right German AfD party. He has indicated his belief in Great Replacement Theory, that whites are being systematically eliminated through the pollution of their bloodlines. In November 2023, he tweeted six infamous words, “You have said the actual truth,” in response to a claim that Jewish communities are responsible for the hate against them. Musk has entertained some truly horrendous ideas, verboten just ten years ago but now being forced through the Overton Window by, among others, the world’s richest person.
In turn, Musk has been embraced by this right-wing segment. They extol him as an Übermensch, as the crystal form of their lofty ideals, an unmitigated genius who can do no wrong. And Musk eats that stuff up. He has variously retweeted a slew of AI slop that pictures him with a full hairline, a chiseled jaw, and biceps that could bore tunnels on their own. He has turned X into a haven for these personalities. And he has adopted the edgelord mannerisms hand over fist. In his heart he might love liberty, goodness, and the Jewish community and Israel, I do not know; certainly he has done some laudable things for us, especially in the wake of October 7. But he also has a propensity to act like a far-right troll, one who plays on antisemitic tropes. This history, unfortunate though it is, removes some of the benefit of the doubt regarding the meaning of the salute, as does his subsequent response in much the same vein.
We should not overreact to Musk’s gesture, but – if you accept that it was indeed what it looked like – we also should not let it escape without social opprobrium. We need to stand against hate symbols everywhere, whether a swastika or an inverted triangle. Why? Because they are hateful, because in themselves they send a message of dehumanization. That ought to be enough. But there’s another issue at play here, as with any prominent display of symbolic hatred. When Elon Musk performs a Nazi salute, while he may not be serious, the extremists watching him certainly are. Those who have drowned themselves in hateful far-right ideology, who write manifestos and wait for the right time to act, take great succor in the confirmation, however counterfactual, that a man so close to the center of power shares their views. One need only read Åsne Seierstad’s chillingly magnificent book One of Us, or recall the horrible shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue or Chabad of Poway, to see how devastating a push in that ideological direction can be. The best and strongest defense we have against that ideology is to show that it won’t be tolerated, no matter who becomes its standard bearer.
We must also remember an important fact, one that Jews have been reminded of since time immemorial. The world’s oldest prejudice is not unique to either left- or right-wing politics. It can emerge from either side of the aisle, and is often a feature of the extreme factions of both ends – sometimes, as with Hitler and Stalin, at the same time. As Jews, we must be vigilant against antisemitism, wherever it comes from.
Elon Musk may have performed the salute because he thought he was being edgy. He may have decided to stick it to the liberals, his critics be damned. But he flashed a symbol of hate, representative of the most destructive movement to Jews in history. We fail ourselves and those who were beaten, burned, murdered, and massacred not two generations ago when we refuse to stand against that. We need not demand his head, but we should at least insist on an apology.
