That salute by Elon Musk on January 20th

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gestures can have different meanings. They are not universal. Elon Musk learned that starting on January 20, 2025. There is a Wikipedia page titled Elon Musk gesture controversy which explains:

 

“After Donald Trump was officially sworn in as the president of the United States, Musk attended a celebratory rally at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., where he thanked the attendees for voting for Trump. Musk jumped onto the stage, started throwing his hands in the air, and then began to dance.

 

After he finished dancing, Musk placed his hand to his heart and extended his arm out above his head with his palm facing down, making a straight arm gesture. He then turned around and repeated the gesture to the audience behind him. He then said: ‘My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured’ after he finished the gestures.”

 

An article by Tim Dickinson at the Rolling Stone on January 20, 2025 is titled Right-wing extremists are abuzz over Musk’s straight-arm salute. Another article by Jordan Liles at

Snopes on January 22, 2025 is titled Did Musk Give ‘Nazi Salute’ at Trump’s 2025 Inauguration Rally? Here’s What We Know. Jordan said:

 

“We cannot read Musk’s mind to learn precisely what he intended by it. It’s possible it was a purposeful Nazi salute; it could also have been entirely innocent. The available evidence is too scant to draw a solid conclusion.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Wikipedia page titled Roman salute describes some history of how an arm gesture became a fascist and then a Nazi salute, as performed by German gymnasts at the 1936 Olympic Games (shown above).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But a very similar gesture regarding the U. S. flag (shown above) is described in another Wikipedia page titled Pledge of Allegiance. The section on salute describes how:

 

“In 1892, Francis Bellamy created what was known as the Bellamy salute to accompany his own version of the Pledge of Allegiance. It started with the hand outstretched toward the flag, palm down, and ended with the palm up. Many decades later, during World War II, controversy arose because of the similarity between the Bellamy salute and the Nazi salute, which was adopted in Germany in the 1930s (although, unlike the Bellamy salute, this one did not end with the palm up). As a result, the US Congress stipulated that the hand-over-the-heart gesture would instead be rendered by civilians during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem, thereby replacing the Bellamy salute. Removal of the Bellamy salute occurred on December 22, 1942, when Congress amended the Flag Code language first passed into law on June 22, 1942.”

 

Another gesture has two opposite meaning. A Wikipedia page about the Head shake says it can be used either to indicate rejection (many places) or to indicate approval (Southeastern Europe).

 

A Nazi saluting arm was adapted from an image at Wikimedia Commons. Images of the 1936 Olympics, and a 1942 Bellamy salute both came from the Library of Congress.