Elon Musk responded to the backlash over the gesture at Donald Trump’s rally

Elon Musk has sparked outrage over the one-handed gesture he made during Donald Trump’s inauguration speech.

Musk thanked the crowd for “making this happen” before placing his right hand over his heart and then extending that same hand in the air straight in front of him. He then turned and repeated the action for those sitting behind him.

Many on X, the social media platform he owns, likened the gesture to a Nazi salute.

In response, Musk posted on X: “Honestly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘Everybody’s Hitler’ attack is so tired.”

Musk, the world’s richest man and a close ally of President Trump, was speaking at Capital One Arena in Washington when he made the gesture.

“My heart goes out to you. Thanks to you, the future of civilization is secured,” the 53-year-old said after the second one-handed salute.

There was an immediate backlash on social media.

Claire Aubin, a historian who specializes in Nazism in the United States, said Musk’s gesture was a “sieg heil,” or Nazi salute.

“My professional opinion is you’re fine, you have to believe your eyes,” she posted on X, referring to those who believe the gesture is a clear reference to the Nazis.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University, said: “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very bellicose one at that.’

Andrea Stropa, a close confidant of Musk who connected him with far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was reported by Italian media to have posted the clip of Musk with the caption: “The Roman Empire is back, starting with a Roman salute.”

The Roman salute was widely used in Italy by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist party before later being adopted by Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Stropa later deleted his post, Italian media reported. He later posted that “this gesture, which some mistook for a Nazi salute, is just Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying, ‘I want to give you my heart,'” he said.

“That’s exactly what he said on the mic. ELON DOESN’T LIKE EXTREMISTS!”

The gesture comes as Musk’s politics increasingly shift to the right. He has made recent statements in support of Germany’s far-right AfD party and Britain’s anti-immigration Reform UK party.

Appearing in Davos at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was asked about the comparison to the Nazi salute, something that is banned in Germany.

“We have freedom of speech in Europe and in Germany,” he said.

“… what we don’t accept is if it’s supporting far-right positions. And that’s what I’d like to say again.”

But some defended Musk, including the Anti-Defamation League, an organization founded to fight anti-Semitism.

“Looks like Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” X’s group posted.

Musk has become one of Trump’s closest allies and was appointed to lead what the president called the Department of Government Efficiency.