A Gesture Made Here Is Still Being Argued Over

Capital One Arena stands on F Street NW in Washington, and on the evening of 20 January 2025 it held a rally celebrating Donald Trump's second inauguration. Elon Musk came onstage to thank the crowd for voting. What follows next is the part that is not in dispute. Musk jumped onto the stage, threw his hands in the air and danced. He then brought his right hand to his chest and extended that arm outward and upward, palm down, fingers together. He turned around and made the same gesture again, to the section of 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." He made the gesture twice, in that order. Accounts differ on the angle of the arm — some describe it as raised above the head, others as extended at a shallower angle — and the video is the only authority on that detail. Everything past this point is characterisation. It is set down here with names attached, because who said what is the part of this that can be established. The Anti-Defamation League posted that it seemed Musk "made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute," and urged that "all sides should give one another a bit of grace." Aaron Astor, a historian at Maryville College, publicly agreed it was not a Nazi salute. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Musk was "being falsely smeared" and called him a great friend of Israel. Senator Ted Cruz observed that Musk "literally said 'my heart goes out to you' as he made the gesture from his heart to the people." Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian of fascism at New York University, called it "a Nazi salute — and a very belligerent one too." Abraham Foxman, who previously ran the ADL as its national director, described it as a "Heil Hitler Nazi salute," breaking with the organisation he had led. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center each characterised it as a Nazi, fascist or apparent Nazi salute, and 166 Jewish leaders signed an open letter condemning it. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the ADL's statement appeared to contradict the organisation's own published definition of a Nazi salute — raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down — and that the ADL declined to explain how it had reached its conclusion. In February 2025 ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt told Haaretz that he should have framed his response differently, given the impact it had. Musk's own account is thinner than the argument around it, and it arrived in three parts. Within hours of the rally he posted on X: "Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired," followed by a sleeping emoji. That post rejects the accusation as a bad-faith political attack. It does not describe the gesture, and it does not say what he meant by it. Three days later, on 23 January, he posted a run of wordplay on the names of Nazi officials: "Don't say Hess to Nazi accusations!", "Some people will Goebbels anything down!", and "His pronouns would've been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming." Greenblatt replied that the Holocaust is not a joke, and the ADL — which had defended him three days earlier — called the posts inappropriate and offensive. The closest thing to a direct statement of intent came roughly six weeks afterwards, on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience released at the end of February 2025, when Musk said the gesture was "obviously meant in the most positive spirit possible." He did not apologise at any point, and he threatened to sue Minnesota Governor Tim Walz over Walz's comments about it. Readers have taken this sequence in opposite directions. Some treat the denial as evidence that the reading was wrong; others note that someone would deny it either way. This entry does not settle that, and no source consulted for it does either. As for how the moment landed at the time, the record is thinner than the arguments built on it. On CNN's live broadcast the anchors flagged the gesture as it happened, with Kasie Hunt noting that it was not something typically seen at American political rallies. One attendee at the arena told Agence France-Presse that he read it as a joke: "He's very humorous, and he uses a lot of sarcasm. So when he did that on the stage, I don't think he meant it." That is one person's account, and it is not a measure of the room. The only systematic measure is a YouGov survey taken in the days afterwards, which showed respondents video of the gesture. 42 per cent described it as a gesture from his heart, and 37 per cent called it a Nazi salute. Among those who read it as a Nazi salute, 50 per cent thought it was done deliberately to signal support for Nazi views, while 31 per cent thought it was a joke or an attempt to provoke. The public did not converge on an answer. Neither does this record. Sources: Wikipedia, Elon Musk salute controversy — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk_salute_controversy · ADL statement on X — https://x.com/ADL/status/1881474892022919403 · Musk's post on X — https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1881536518206218445 · The Hill, "Musk on salute blowback: 'Frankly, they need better dirty tricks'" — https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5097672-elon-musk-responds-salute-criticism/ · Forbes, 23 January 2025, on the Nazi puns and the ADL response — https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/01/23/anti-defamation-league-condemns-elon-musk-holocaust-jokes-after-defending-awkward-gesture/ · The Hill on the ADL taking issue with the puns — https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5103537-adl-which-had-defended-musk-takes-issue-with-his-nazi-puns/ · HuffPost on the Joe Rogan Experience remark — https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-defends-nazi-like-gesture-joe-rogan_n_67c34682e4b02dddf2166a60 · TIME on the reactions and the ADL — https://time.com/7208614/elon-musk-nazi-salute-reactions-debate-controversy-adl-trump-inauguration/ · Al Jazeera on the backlash to the ADL — https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/22/adl-faces-backlash-for-defending-elon-musks-raised-arm-gesture · Salon on Ruth Ben-Ghiat — https://www.salon.com/2025/01/21/it-was-a-nazi-salute-historian-dismisses-claim-that-musks-raised-arm-was-mere-awkward-gesture/ · Haaretz interview with Jonathan Greenblatt — https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/podcasts/2025-02-27/ty-article-podcast/adl-head-jonathan-greenblatt-i-should-have-framed-my-tweet-on-musks-salute-differently/00000195-4686-d46a-a19f-f7c628570000 · France 24 on the repeated gesture — https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20250121-musk-repeatedly-makes-gesture-likened-to-nazi-salute-at-trump-rally · YouGov survey results — https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/Elon_Musk_Gesture_poll_results.pdf