Elon Musk’s inauguration parade gesture likened to nazi salute, billionaire threw his ‘heart’ at Republicans

Billionaire Elon Musk has sparked concerns over a gesture he made to the cheering crowd gathered inside the Capital One Arena for President Donald Trump’s inauguration parade.

While standing on stage thanking the crowd of Republicans for their support and for re-electing Trump — a campaign that he was a major donor to — Musk made an arm movement that has been likened to the nazi salute.

“I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” the owner of SpaceX, X and Tesla told supporters at Capital One Arena in Washington DC, referencing the election result.

He then slapped his right hand to his chest, before shooting his arm out on an upward diagonal direction, fingers together and palm facing down. The gesture bore an unfortunate similarity to the Sieg Heil salute used in 1930s nazi Germany as a way to pay homage to Adolf Hitler.

“My heart goes out to you,” Musk continued, clutching his hand over his breast again.

As the crowd cheered, Musk turned and made a second gesture to those behind him.

“It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured. Thanks to you,” Musk continued.

“We’re gonna have safe cities, finally safe cities. Secure borders, sensible spending. Basic stuff. And we’re gonna take ‘DOGE’ to Mars.”

His comment about Mars was in reference to claims President Trump made in his inaugural address that the US would send astronauts to the red planet.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the organisation that campaigns against anti-Semitism, defines the Nazi salute as “raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down”. The organisation says the salute has become “the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world”.

Shocked and outraged reactions to the gesture came thick and fast on social media, with Israeli newspaper Haaretz saying Musk performed “a Roman salute, a fascist salute most commonly associated with Nazi Germany”.

According to Rolling Stone, two prominent far-right figures are celebrating Musk’s gestures, whether intentional or not.

Christopher Pohlhaus, leader of neo-nazi group Blood Tribe, wrote on Telegram: “I don’t care if this (the gesture) was a mistake. I’m going to enjoy the tears over it”.

The founder of Gab, a far-right social media platform, Andrew Torba wrote: “Incredible things are happening already.”

Musk has been increasingly engaging with far-right politics. Last week, he hosted a conversation with Alice Weidel, leader of alt-right German political party Alternative für Deutschland, on X. In that conversation, Weidel argued Hitler “wasn’t a conservative... he was a communist, socialist guy and we (her party) are the opposite”. Musk agreed.