A French-German author who lost family members in the Holocaust said he was shocked to see Elon Musk’s straight-arm gesture, which many have compared to a Nazi salute, at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Mr Musk has drawn outrage from across Europe for delivering back-to-back gestures as he got on to the stage during his speech at Mr Trump’s inauguration celebration.
Mr Musk has not explicitly rejected those comparisons in social media posts since, though he tried to downplay it and lashed out at people making that interpretation.
Michel Friedman, author and former deputy chair of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the German newspaper Tagesspiegel that he saw the inauguration live on television and according to him, Mr Musk had unambiguously emulated the fascist salute when he shot his right arm in an angular direction with the palm facing down.
“I thought to myself, the breaking of taboos is reaching a point that is dangerous for the entire free world. The brutalisation, the dehumanisation, Auschwitz, all of that is Hitler,” said Mr Friedman, who belongs to a family of Polish Jews. Most of his family, exluding his parents and grandmother, died in a Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
“A mass murderer, a warmonger, a person for whom people were nothing more than numbers – fair game, not worth mentioning,” Mr Friedman said, referring to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Mr Musk, who provided significant funding to the new US president’s successful campaign and is tasked with running a meme-based government efficiency council, addressed supporters of the president from the stage at Washington’s Capitol One Arena.
While the crowd roared in approval, the world’s richest man told MAGA supporters he wanted to “say thank you for making it happen” before emphatically slapping his right hand into his chest. At that point, he threw his right arm diagonally into the air, fingers together, and his palm down.
The Tesla CEO then turned around and repeated the gesture, this time towards the back of the stage where an American flag was hanging.
“My heart goes out to you,” he added, putting his hand on his chest again. “It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured. Thanks to you!”
Rather than outright denying that he meant to deploy the salute, Mr Musk said his critics needed “better dirty tricks” because attacking their political opponents as Nazis was “sooo tired”.
The Anti-Defamation League, an antisemitism and human rights watchdog, also downplayed the inscident, calling it an “awkward gesture” and urging caution in jumping to conclusions.
Mr Musk got into a social media feud with German chancellor Olaf Scholz after the latter said he does not support freedom of speech when it is used to air extreme-right views.
"We have the freedom of speech in Europe and in Germany. Everyone can say what he wants, even if he is a billionaire. And what we do not accept is if this is supporting extreme-right positions," Mr Scholz said in Davos when asked about the incident.
"Shame on Oaf Schitz," Mr Musk posted on X, the platform he owns.
Kurt Braddock, a professor of communication at American University who studies extremism, radicalisation and terrorism, claimed the gesture was a fascist salute and “people shouldn’t doubt what they saw”.
“I know what I saw, I know what the response to it was among elements of the extreme right including neo-Nazis,” Mr Braddock said. “And none of it is a laughing matter.”
