When is a Nazi salute not a Nazi salute? Apparently when Elon Musk does it.
The tech mogul managed to divide social media on Monday after he gave a salute to President Donald Trump at the inauguration that looked suspiciously like the trademark “Heil Hitler” salute used by the Nazis in World War II.
Musk’s gesture, which CNN anchor Erin Burnett called “odd-looking,” looked like a Nazi salute to many, but others, such as Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations, and the Anti-Defamation League either defended him or minimized the gesture.
So did Musk, who took to his X platform to tweet, “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
Others took the “if it walks like a duck” approach to Musk’s polarising gesture.
Considering opinion seemed divided on social media, some folks decided the best way to prove or disprove whether Musk’s Trump salute was Nazi-inspired was to issue a challenge to his supporters.
Quite a few people trolled Musk fans by noting that if Musk’s salute wasn’t Nazi-inspired, then his fans will have no problem posting their own photos doing it as well.
As of Tuesday afternoon, it didn’t appear as if anyone had taken the bait and posted their own Nazi salutes on social media.
However, one person did feel compelled to note on X that the platform hadn’t edited or censored any posts attacking Musk for the gesture.