Jan. 20 2025 will go down as a dark day in American history. Trump’s second inauguration was marked by a blizzard of executive orders: trashing the climate by pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, freeing violent Jan. 6 insurrectionists, obliterating LGTBQ+ rights, and moving to redefine birthright citizenship.
The cherry on top of this nightmarish 24 hours was Elon Musk throwing a Nazi salute during his speech. As you would expect, one of the most influential figures in U.S. politics and the richest man in the world doing a Nazi salute before the global media naturally drew a lot of comment. Musk, for his part, has dismissed this as a “sooo tired” “everyone is Hitler” attack on him.
So, what did the Anti-Defamation League make of this? After all, for over a century they’ve been one of the major forces in American society battling against anti-semitism, with their mission statement “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” They’ve continually pushed back against Neo-Nazis and white supremacists — and have a page on their website defining the “Hitler salute” as “the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world,” before underlining that “it consists of raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down,” exactly what Musk did.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University, was unequivocal:
Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat.bsky.social) January 20, 2025 at 10:16 PM
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So, surely they’d be the first to stand up and condemn Musk! Their response:
“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.
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.
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.”
Oh. Oh right. Okay, sure, I mean. I guess Elon Musk, a guy who pals around with Nazis, boosts Nazi visibility on his website, has a recent history of far-right opinions, and is currently supporting the controversial German AfD party, could have made an “awkward gesture” that just so happened to look exactly like a Nazi salute.
Musk himself replied “thanks guys,” with the boomer trademark of the crying laughing emoji:
But it’s safe to say that nobody is buying it. The replies were limited to those who the ADL’s X account follows, but appear uniformly astonished that the prominent Jewish organization would excuse a Nazi salute: “Did Elon Musk’s press secretary write this?,” “Awkward gesture? Sorry, but you got this one wrong, ADL. Even Musk is laughing at you for apologizing for him,” and “Have you lost your mind?“
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in with what we’re all thinking:
Responses from across the rest of social media are a similar mix of shock and bafflement:
Honestly, these are rough chuckles and a great sign we’re in for an awful (at minimum) four years (uh, also at minimum). We all expected Trump’s second term to be marked by fascistic and authoritarian tendencies, but if we’ve got Nazi salutes literally from Day One we’re strolling down a very dark road. And, if the leading organization fighting anti-semitism is happy to roll over and have its tummy tickled by a man tossing out a Nazi salute, one of the few pinpricks of light we thought we could rely on to illuminate our path was just snuffed out.
Published: Jan 21, 2025 08:29 am