Media organisations are shy about saying that Musk gave two Nazi salutes at the end of his speech. This wasn’t a snapshot in the middle of him raising his arm up. Let’s play spot the euphemism.
During a speech to tens of thousands of Trump supporters Musk made a Nazi salute (sometimes called a Roman salute) to Trump’s followers twice. As can be seen in the video, he does it very deliberately twice, once in the direction of the camera and again to people behind him. The text that The Guardian has added to the video says that he ‘appears to give fascist-style salute’. There really is no doubt.
YouTube video of Elon Musk giving a Nazi salute.
Click to reveal video.
If anyone has any doubt that Musk gave a Nazi salute here is a brief history of it with examples.
YouTube video of the history of the Nazi salute from the Holocaust Museum.
Click to reveal video.
It was not an ‘awkward gesture’ where he meant to do one thing and fumbled it. He did it twice in a very deliberate manner. Some are trying to claim that the camera caught his arm in that position as he was raising it. A quick look at the video will dispel that notion.
This is in keeping with his support for racists such as Tommy Robinson and the German far-right party AfD. This party even put the Nazi salute in their promotional images in a not very convincing attempt to make it appear like a natural part of the composition.
As all his apologists fall over themselves to tell everybody Musk is a genius, there can be no doubt that he knows exactly what he is doing and how it will be received by the neo-Nazi community.
News organisations are struggling to report it while avoiding saying that he did a Nazi salute. Some braver ones say ‘what appears to be a Nazi salute ‘, others obfuscate by going with ‘what appears to be a fascist salute ‘. The weasely ones report it very indirectly by saying that people on social media have accused him of doing a Nazi salute.
Who in the media is saying what
Let’s take a look at how the news media is reporting it with their Weasel scores.
| News Organisations | Phrase used | Weasel points |
| BBC | ‘Many on X likened the gesture to a Nazi salute’ | 4 |
| The Times | ‘Some commenters on social media suggested it looked like a fascist salute’ | 5 |
| The Telegraph | ‘some critics have likened to a fascist salute’ | 5 |
| The Guardian | ‘Elon Musk appears to make back-to-back fascist salutes at inauguration rally’ | 3 |
| The Independent | ‘The Tesla CEO caused outrage online after appearing to make a salute’ | 5 |
| Washington Post | ‘Elon Musk gave a high-energy speech at President Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration at Capitol One Arena’ | 10 |
| Fox News | ‘Media outlets accuse Elon Musk of giving ‘fascist salute’ at Trump inauguration rally’ | 10 |
| The New York Times | ‘Musk twice extended his arm out with his palm facing down, drawing comparisons to the Nazi salute’ | 5 |
| USA Today | ‘Elon Musk’s ‘odd-looking’ salute sure looked like a ‘Sieg heil’ to me’ | 0 |
| Aljazzera | ‘Musk has come under fire after making hand gestures resembling the Nazi salute’ | 3 |
| The Jerusalem Post | ‘Elon Musk appeared to make a Heil Hitler salute at the Washington DC Trump parade’ | 2 |
No news media outlets could be found that were bold enough to say outright that he did a Nazi or fascist salute.