Jan. 20 was inauguration day for the 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump. This being his second inauguration into the presidency of the United States he invited many people. One of them being the richest man in the world Elon Musk. Musk and Trump have had a long-lasting relationship that even traces back to Trump’s first presidency. Once Trump got elected in the last political race in 2024 this relationship between Trump and Musk has seemingly become stronger. Even leading to Trump giving Musk a position in the cabinet a couple of weeks ago.
Due to this close relationship between the two Musk made a speech at the presidential inauguration. Being well loved by the supporters of Trump he was led out by a loud roar of crowd. As he started his speech talking about how this election is so important and how well-known issues like immigration will be fixed, he did a salute that was suspiciously close to the nazi salute.
This gesture is known as a disrespect because of the historical background of the nazis and Adolf Hitler. Before the salute he put it on his heart. Which adds more disrespect to the act at hand. But let’s really talk about the historical aspects of this gesture and why it took the internet by storm.
As everyone already knows the nazis is a well hated group throughout the world who were known to be anti-sematic. This gester being one were Musk raised his straight arm toward the sky at an angle was used to symbolize their group. This was why this gesture at the start of Musk’s speech has been the talk of the internet. People also think this is a symbol of how the presidency is going to turn out. This is where all the controversy has come from because many people do not want to believe this very clear symbol was not the nazi sign.
It is well known that Musk has autism in the form of Aspergers Syndrome. He revealed this is the world during an SNL (Saturday Night Live) episode he hosted. Many people who are on the spectrum do something called stimming. Stimming is an action done by autistic people to self-stimulate. Musk during the inauguration was filming stimming. That has also become a meme of Musk “reloading”.
The rolling of the eyes and moving the head in a circular motion is a normal stim but putting your hand on your heart and rising your arm to do the nazi symbol is not even close to a stim. The fact that people are trying to excuse this malice behavior shows the state of our country as a whole.