Elon Musk gave a highly controversial speech during President Trump’s inauguration, though the source of this controversy wasn’t in the contents of the speech itself. As many of you have already seen, Musk reached to his heart with his right hand and extended his arm outward, slightly to the side, and fully extended it outward roughly one minute into his speech, timed as an expression of his love for the crowd. He then turned around and repeated this gesture, slightly altering the angle of his arm to face more in-line with his torso.
As one would expect, this evoked strong visceral reactions from thousands of people, even penetrating some cultural boundaries in its divisiveness, as they were confronted with the question of whether this was a genuine Nazi salute or an unfortunate mishap of clumsy emphatic expression. On the surface, it appears that the majority of left-leaning individuals unconditionally believe the former while the majority of right-leaning individuals unconditionally believe the latter. These tendencies make sense to me, but I am dubious of the level of certainty of all involved.
On the right side, Fox News and other conservative news sources vehemently denied the accusations against Musk while simultaneously clipping out the first of two salute gestures, showing only Musk’s second gesture as his back was turned to the camera. In contrast, news outlets in Germany are censoring the images of Musk’s gestures to comply with their own laws that prevent them from broadcasting Nazi salutes, either with a sense of their own certainty or out of caution. This omission begs the question: if there were any doubts regarding their ability to dismiss these accusations to their own target audiences, why did they purposefully clip the first gesture from their video? The Anti-Defamation league also denies the accusations, stating that it was “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute.”
On the left side, we’re ultimately faced with the difficult problem of accurately inferring someone’s state of mind from without. I do believe the argument that Musk in-fact executed a Nazi salute is tenable, given that there are supporting factors which we’ll discuss shortly, but I am skeptical of the level of absolute certainty expressed by many. Since he is denying that this is a Nazi salute, a burden of proof is introduced, one that is neither trivial nor necessarily insurmountable in my opinion. I believe most individuals who’ve discussed this point have failed to commit to the level of consideration required to properly assess this situation. I will attempt to do so myself here.
If any given individual were to make the exact same two gestures, precisely with no deviation, then deny its nature as a Nazi salute, our acceptance of that denial would be based on our knowledge of them. Did this person ever give a Nazi salute in the past? Have they ever made antisemitic statements? Have they ever taken action born from antisemitic views? In Musk’s case, the answer to the first question must be no without evidence to the contrary, but the answer to the second question is yes. He has expressed numerous antisemitic comments and viewpoints on X (formerly Twitter), including a notable occurrence in 2023, where he publicly supported a post of a “white genocide” antisemitic conspiracy theory. His past behavior bolsters the claim that Musk did intend to give a Nazi salute. In other words, the likelihood that this was a Nazi salute is increased given his antisemitic history.
If we were to, for argument’s sake, adopt the viewpoint that his gesture was a Nazi salute, we must consider the question of why he would choose to do this, and why now? Presumably, portraying himself as a Nazi would weaken, or even destroy, his reputation, sphere of influence, and financial status, would it not? Not necessarily. In a New York Times interview in 2019, Congressman Steven King asked, “white nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization – how did that language become offensive?” One would expect that publicly questioning whether white supremacy is, in fact, problematic would lead to permanent repercussions to his career, as it would to most Americans, but those expectations were not met. He remained in his office for the remainder of his term with no formal censure and continued to receive support from his base. His only repercussion was his removal of committee assignments, effectively no more than a slap on the wrist. In 2016, Hillary Clinton stated, “To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphoic – you name it.” I do not find the viewpoint that roughly 25% of this country is comprised of individuals who fit these criteria to be a tenable one, and the accusation itself is problematic, even if it’s pointed to a political group, which one can change, as opposed to a group which has qualities that cannot be changed. Similarly, she continued her career without significant repercussions, though she did express regret for those remarks afterward. There are a multitude of problematic, stereotypical remarks and statements uttered by politicians, business leaders, and other famous figures that have not been met with meaningful repercussions. Even if Musk explicitly stated that he intended to do a Nazi salute and would do it again, I cannot take it for granted that we would face any long-term consequences that would limit his scope of influence. Such is the double standard of those in the national spotlight.
This brings us back to our question – if he did give a Nazi salute, why? It’s presumable that, with President Trump back in office, and with a larger voting majority than before, we’ve witnessed the results of a change in our country’s culture, one that makes us more amenable to the expression of conservative and even far-right viewpoints. The groups who would respond well to a public display of Nazism – neo-Nazis, white supremacists, certain religious groups – would view this as an advocation for their own viewpoints, a stepping stone for their goal of gaining more publicity and influence. Groups that are “Nazi-adjacent,” those who do not hold such extremist views but do not denounce those who do, would feel a similar effect of lesser intensity. Would Musk have something to gain by throwing this bone to these groups? For everyone else, this shifted culture may serve to blunten the blow, lessening the severity of the reaction he would receive. The answer to this question, of what Musk would have to gain by doing this purposefully, would potentially give us enough to answer the main question of whether he did this intentionally in the first place. Without an answer, I believe it would be speculative to draw the conclusion that he, in fact, did intend to give a Nazi salute, even if there is a degree of supporting evidence that makes it more likely than the base case (i.e., any randomly selected individual making these exact gestures).
There is one more possibility worth briefly discussing. This may have been a form of “testing the waters.” It’s conceivable to think that Musk had a motive of emoting a Nazi like salute for the express purpose of determining what level of backlash he’d receive and using that information to help inform him of what types of statements and actions he can take in the future, weighing in his learnings from this incident. I don’t think this possibility is as strong, but it’s worth at least a brief consideration.
Despite the level of uncertainty, which I believe is slightly higher than most would like to admit, this gesture remains highly problematic. Consider this thought experiment:
“You’re employed as a mid-level office worker in a corporate environment. Your team’s just gained a new colleague, a senior-level manager from another branch who’s contracted from another company. After completing a major project, he takes you all out to a bar as a thank-you and gives a speech, in which he gives Musk’s exact gestures to you and your colleagues. In that very moment, what will you think? How will that affect his employment in this corporate culture? Will your continued association with him hurt your prospects of a promotion to senior level yourself? Is he the type of person you’d want to share lunch with? When he makes Nazi jokes to everyone around the office the next day, will your opinion change?”
My experience as a corporate employee would tell me to avoid this individual at all costs. When promotion time rolls around, those in charge may look for any reason to block your promotion and save that money associated with the salary increase for the company. When layoffs and other tough times come around, anything and everything may be used against you. It would be wise for all involved to spend as little time as possible with that individual, as he’s probably now on the chopping block himself. Beyond such selfish considerations, I personally would not want to associate with someone who doesn’t have the good sense to avoid giving a Nazi salute or a lookalike, regardless of whether it were intentional. If it were, I would consider it an ethical obligation to stay away, and if it weren’t, I’d consider it good prudence to prevent myself from being wrapped up in their hot mess.
Taking this to the national level, if we assume Musk had the best of intentions and simply wanted to express his gratitude, his actions are unambiguously dangerous and unacceptable. Whether he wanted to appeal to extremist groups or not, that’s exactly what he did. Whether he wanted to instill fear into those of Jewish religion or culture, I think it safe to say that’s exactly what he’s done to some. Whether he wanted to stir antisemitism into the American culture, that’s exactly what he’s done. Any leader in the American government, whether through official election by vote or appointment without, must hold themselves to the highest of standards if they are to use their power effectively and without harm to those whom they serve. This ridiculous gesture, Nazi or not, is a clear abdication of that responsibility. To those who are arguing whether or not this was a Nazi salute, this isn’t an all or nothing proposition – this gesture should be enough to lose the trust of the American people regardless, especially when his subsequent actions of sharing Nazi jokes online belies the seriousness of his actions. He should’ve known that this gesture would send certain messages to certain groups of people, whether he intended it or not. We must hold those with the highest levels of power to, at least, the same standards our private companies hold its own employees to and eliminate the double standard that allows so many people to have their cake and eat it too.
