At the rally following Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, presidential adviser, head of DOGE and the world’s richest man Elon Musk twice made a gesture that many identify with a “seig heil,” the infamous Nazi salute.
The CEO of X, Tesla and SpaceX thanked the assembled crowd by saying, “I just want to say thank you for doing this,” before biting his lip, dramatically slapping his chest with his right hand and sending his right arm skyward. , palm out. Musk turned around and made the gesture again, adding: “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is secured.”
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As Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said during Tuesday’s confirmation hearings for Trump’s next U.N. ambassador, it wasn’t just left-wing activists and anti-Musk figures who considered the gesture an ode to the genocidal German leader: “Evan Kilgore, a right-wing political commentator, wrote in X, holy shit, did Elon Musk condemn Hitler at Trump’s inauguration rally? This is incredible. We’re back…the Ohio chapter of the Proud Boys posted the clip to a Telegram channel with the caption “Heil Trump.” A chapter of the white nationalist group White Lives Matter posted it on Telegram, ‘Thanks for listening to us, Elon. The white flame will rise again.”
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For his part, Musk – who recently expressed support for far-right political parties in the UK and Germany – wrote in X that “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is very tired”. He followed this up by reposting images of right-wing Democrats like Barack Obama, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton making out-of-context hand gestures that could hardly be described as similar to his own.
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Andrea Stroppa, a right-wing Italian friend and Musk supporter, took the discussion in a completely different direction on Monday when she tweeted on X that Musk’s salute had Italian origins: “The Roman Empire is back starting with the Roman salute.”
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Some of Musk’s fans and followers at X jumped on the Roman bandwagon, claiming it vindicated the hate-mongering titan by being less Hitler and more Nero.
The origin of the Roman greeting
According to historian Martin M. Winkler, who wrote a book about the salute, the problem with the claim that Musk was simply showing an appreciation for chariots and gladiators is that there is no evidence that the gesture was used in ancient Rome. According to Winkler, there is no Roman art, writing, or coins that display the gesture. “The raised right arm or hand gesture in Roman and other ancient cultures, attested in surviving art and literature, had a distinctly different function and is never identical to the modern straight-arm salute,” Winkler wrote. in his book. The Roman Salute.
Instead, a hand gesture like the one used by Musk was popularized in 19th-century books, board games, and, later, in early 20th-century movies, as a fictional fixation of Roman Rome. ancient, Guardian reports. Through those media depictions, the so-called Roman salute then became a favorite of Hitler’s 20th century ally/Italian fascist Benito Mussolini and his political party. “…the salute as a unifier—and as a way to punish those who don’t conform by immediately raising their arms—was present before Hitler came to power,” according to Forward.
Upon taking power in the late 1920s, Hitler and his cronies adopted the Italian gesture for themselves, according to the BBC, and it symbolized loyalty to the leader and his racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic principles. After World War II began in 1939 following the German invasion of Poland, pro-Hitler gestures and statements had permeated everyday life. “In public, ordinary Germans were expected to praise Hitler and give the so-called German salute (“Heil Hitler!”),” according to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, which is maintained by the US Holocaust Museum.
The Roman salute is conditionally allowed in Italy and completely prohibited in Germany. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz responded to Musk’s gesture by saying: “We have freedom of speech in Europe and in Germany,” he said, “what we do not accept is if this is supporting far-right positions.”