American billionaire Elon Musk on Monday during a speech at President Donald Trump’s inauguration celebrations caused an uproar on the internet with his right hand gesturewhich seemingly resembled the Nazi salute. The Israeli media and world agencies drew attention to it, writes TASR.
Musk was one of the speakers on stage before Trump arrived at the Capital One complex in Washington. He thanked Republican supporters for their support, then put his right hand over his heart and raised it sharply, palm down and fingers together.
“My heart belongs to you” said Musk in front of approximately 20,000 people. According to the DPA agency, users of the X network owned by him noticed that the gesture resembles a Nazi salute. Others came to his defense.
The Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post pointed out that Musk repeated the gesture a total of three times during the live broadcast. “Did Elon Musk do a (Nazi shout) Sieg Heil at Trump’s inauguration?” asked the diary.
However, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a non-profit organization that monitors anti-Semitism, disputed that it was hazing. According to her, the billionaire did in a moment of enthusiasm “awkward gesture”but not the Nazi salute.
Historian Aaron Astor also rejected the accusations against Musk. “I have criticized Elon Musk many times for letting neo-Nazis pollute this platform,” wrote on X. “However, this gesture is not a Nazi salute. This is the socially awkward waving of an autistic man to the crowd saying ‘my heart belongs to you'”.
On the contrary, according to AFP, historians Claire Aubinová and Ruth Ben-Ghiatová agreed that Musk was lying. “It was a Nazi salute, and a very bellicose one,” said Ben-Ghiat on X.
The richest man in the world posted parts of his speech in the form of a video on his channel on X. He subsequently dismissed criticism of his gesture as an attack from “fatigue”. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is already very hackneyed,” he said.
