Elon Musk got a prominent position at Donald Trump’s indoor inauguration yesterday, as you can see in these photos. He was seated close to the Trump family, and beside Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Incidentally, Musk is now heading up the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) all by himself – Vivek Ramaswamy got pushed out before the inauguration, and Ramaswarmy’s face-saving cover story is that he plans to run for governor of Ohio. The real story is that Vivek irritated the f–k out of Trump. Trump is also irritated by Musk, but Musk is the virtual co-president and Trump’s puppet-master. Which means that contrary to internet rumors, Musk will be getting a West Wing office, and he already has a White House email.
Speaking of Musk’s power over Trump and Musk’s power within the Trump camp, Musk was the headliner at the Trump inaugural party at the Capital One Arena. As he spoke to the crowd of MAGA dumbf–ks, Musk decided to do a stiff-armed Nazi salute. Because he’s a Nazi, his father is a Nazi and I believe his grandfather was a card-carrying member of the Nazi party. I don’t have the bandwidth to describe the rhetorical journey the MAGAts have gone through in the past twelve hours to explain how Musk didn’t do the salute, but it was just a joke, but he did do it but it’s no big deal. I don’t care. Dude is a Nazi.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 20, 2025
Grandson of Nazi party members, Elon Musk, throwing up Nazi salutes at the US presidential inauguration while the crowd of Republicans go wild with applause and cheers. pic.twitter.com/S1rX9rX8E3
— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) January 20, 2025
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Telsa, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States Featuring: Elon Musk Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 20 Jan 2025 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- Telsa, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States Featuring: Elon Musk Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 20 Jan 2025 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- Telsa, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States Featuring: Elon Musk Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 20 Jan 2025 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- Telsa, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States Featuring: Elon Musk Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 20 Jan 2025 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk gestures as U.S. President Donald Trump delivers his inaugural address on the day of his Presidential Inauguration at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. Featuring: Elon Musk Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 20 Jan 2025 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
I will do a dance of joy when this Nazi scum sucker dies. Dance.
I’ll join you. LOTS of us will join you.
As a Jewish woman, this scares the bejesus out of me. As the daughter of a Survivor, I thank God my dad passed 18 mos. ago (at 95) so he didn’t see history repeating itself.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
@Jan90067 I was just thinking the same. My Bubbie was a survivor and she passed away two years ago at 97. Trump terrified her in his first term and she would only say, “I know his kind.” She was so thrilled he lost in 2020 and I am glad she cannot see these Nazis in power again.
Hugs, Lise! 🤗.🤗.🤗 #NeverAgain 💙
OMG! I’m horrified that anyone has to witness this hate-filled a$$hole throw his nasty salute, but especially for anyone whose family suffered under the Nazis to see it. I knew thatI would see things from the Doom Inauguration Day of my nightmares, but I certainly wasn’t expecting this.
As a Jewish woman, Jan90067, what did you think of Zuck sitting there watching this? Do you think that there was at least some nausea in the pit of his stomach, knowing exactly what Musk was doing?
I’m not Jewish but I literally felt like I was going to throw up.
Ashley, Zuck is the type of Jew who, during the Holocaust, turned in his fellow Jews and was the “Kapo” for the camps (did the dirty work of the Nazis, against his fellow Jews). I doubt he even thinks of himself as remotely Jewish (other than his name). Personally, I think he’s a …. well…. it’d get me banned here, and probably sued to write what I *really* think of him and his ilk.
But to more succinctly answer you, I don’t think he had a pit in his stomach; I think all he “felt” was a surge of greed at how much more he will get/take from this admin.
Thanks, Jan90067. And a big sigh and hug for you.
I don’t know if it even matters if he meant to do it or not at this point because the gesture tracks exactly with who he has been saying he is (hint: he did), but this matters: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-salute-reaction-right-wing-extremists-1235241866/
My grandparents were from Hamburg. I fear what comes next
Are we even surprised by this low-life’s behaviour? He’s a white South African who grew up during the apartheid. Enough said.
He’s really showing himself now though. I have been suspicious of him ever since I found out he is South African. But he was careful in his early years of fame in this country. But he’s really saying it with his whole chest now, isn’t he?
As my husband says, Trump gives people permission to be who they really are. This why more are being comfortable coming out for Trump. It was never about the price of eggs. There are a lot of white supremacists in this country. It’s terrifying.
His maternal grandparents were also card-carrying members of the Canadian Nazi Party before they moved to South Africa because they were staunch supporters of apartheid.
I am a white Saffa and I grew up during apartheid (and fought against it), does that make me a low life too? Elon does not identify himself as South African and the majority of Saffas are really happy about that and wish that the rest of the world would stop calling him South African!
Your comment is both insulting and insensitive to the rest of the SA population, white or black.
The man is an aberration and abhorrent.
@sharon, I agree. Painting all white South Africans with the apartheid-loving Elon brush is horribly unfair and inaccurate. It is as if someone deemed all white Americans to be Nazi flag-flying Trump supporters.
Elon’s father was a white supremacist and became extremely rich from apartheid and hates black people. Elon lied about his background completely. The information is there for anyone to find. It’s been well researched.
I will also join you. Just hope I live long enough to be able to see it…
You speak for all of us.
Just like everyone else before him, Musk will also irritate the f*ck out of Trump. just a matter of time. Oh & that was definitely a Nazi salute.
Absolutely. Tick tock, little Nazi.
Maybe, maybe not. Because as annoying as Felon47 may find Musk, F47 needs Musk because 1: he still owns a socials platform that is somehow still widely used so F47 can get out his propaganda and 2: F47, more than anything, loves $$, especially when he can somehow con it out to pad his own coffers, and Musk has billions of it.
@DaveW…I don’t know…he has access to money through other avenues. Like making money off the presidency, Peter Thiel, not returning money to people who paid for seats at his inauguration, other tech billionaires. Musk will wear out his welcome, he’s already wearing it out, ..every person does with Trump because he’s a narcissist. It will be interesting to see who destroys who here.
@DaveW: You’re right about Herr Musk’s billions. But the orange one is famously unable to share the spotlight. I don’t think he has the discipline to tolerate President Musk for very long, no matter how much he may need or be beholden to him. But only time will tell.
Felon47 can’t get rid of Apartheid Clyde, because the Space Nazi paid at least an estimated $100 million to buy 🟠’s re-entry into the White House.
Same way as Peter Thiel owns the Divan Interventionist.
And I’m sure there’s either some sort of internal paper trail to remind tRump, or something else that proves that Muskrat’s place is in the West Wing until the bitter end.
Some journalist over here called the two of them President Mump…
And it was a Nazi salute, there’s no doubting that.
What’s truly terrifying is that many news outlets, are already editing out the salute. NBC, for example.
My god you are right. A Google search shows none of the major American news outlets covering it at all.
The NYT has a story and it’s on the front page. Not WashPost, of course.
Google search in Canada shows major outlets covering it. And let’s not kid ourselves…it was 100% a natzi salute. He couldn’t wait to openly tell us who he is.
I was at least relieved to see the story on the NYTimes.
@PunkyMomma – 100% this. Mainstream US outlets bent over backwards to hedge about whether it was the actual Nazi salute that it was. FFS. France24 was straight up that it was the Nazi salute though, and that’s how I initially hear about it.
I will keep this brief and to the point –
I am seeing online pushback from Musk and Trump supporters about the Musk Sieg Heil salute now making waves across the planet, and the claims that it is simply a “Roman Salute” , nothing like Libs are making it out to be. Despite the fact that minimal research refers to the Roman salute as the Fascist Salute, I have a suggestion for those who defend and support it: DO IT.
Then, take a video of you doing it and post it to your own Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or social media outlet of your choice. It is harmless, right? That is what you are telling everyone, right? Do it in public when you greet folks, the cashier at the grocery store, or your next family event. Send it to your boss as a greeting. Put it in the next company-wide email. It is just a friendly gesture according to you, right ? Go ahead and do it. Show everyone how we are overreacting and everyone knows it’s just harmless and loving. You know, like giving your heart to the crowd as you say Elon was doing. Go ahead, do it and own it since it is so innocuous. Put your money where your mouth is.
I dare you. (sorry for the rant — I just… cannot with these people.)
Yes, and the anti defamation league (?!!) is saying, maybe it was just an excited gesture?
No, it was a nazi salute full stop.
Any organization downplaying it is telling on themselves.
The head of the ADL is MAGA. I mean, while we were not paying attention, these MFers were taking over the entire country. We’ve got bigger problems than we even imagined.
If you have to wonder whether it’s a Nazi salute, then it is.
If you have to wonder whether Melanoma meant it when she wore a jacket with “I don’t care, do you?”, then she did.
If someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time… – Maya Angelou
Glad a couple other people have commented on this, the ADL is essentially a right-wing political lobby group and have been so for a long time. Their racism and bigotry against social justice organizations led by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ folks, immigrants, Muslims, and Arabs is well documented. They also have a long history of supporting police brutality, surveillance, and the military-prison industrial complex.
He did it twice. Once for the people in front and then he turned around and did it for the people in the cheap seats behind him. It was no “excited jesture”.
@Tiffany:) – The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is furious and claims it was a Nazi salute, and if he says so, it was!
European televisions are saying he did a nazi salut…
That’s exactly what he did. And they applauded him.
What concerns me is the level of discource around whether it was a salute or a gesture. Once doubt is raised then the issue is moot: endlessly debatable and ultimately pointless. Rather than speculate on the meaning behind it, focus on the reality in front of it. Elon Musk is a separatist. His co-dictator is a supremacist. And far above all politics and wealth, they desire power. Donnie doesn’t need fascist salutes and armbands to signal his message, he’s already made it.
@PunkyMomma – British news outlets are not doing so – not even the right-wing Daily Telegraph which includes a photo of Der Fuhrer for comparison.
For anyone trying to argue that he was just being awkward, he did the Nazi salute 3 times in a row in different directions so everyone could see it. It was not an awkward mistake.
It’s like all of our grandfathers who fought fascism in WWII are now gone and many idiots are now letting the fascists and Nazis win. Everyone remember “The Man in the High Castle”? I am so heartsick.
it’s worth noting that Musk’s grandparents were members of the Nazi party in Canada who relocated from Canada to South Africa because they know the Afrikaner government was a stronghold of support for Nazism. This (and Apartheid) were core political beliefs of the Musk family according to interviews Musk’s father has given as recently as last October
Man in the High Castle was the first thing that came to my mind. It showed how terrifyingly easy could be to make ppl accept and embrace nazi mentality, under the guise of ‘building the perfect world’. Ughs and shivers.
Look, I know wishing death on someone can get you banned, and I’m not saying I’m doing that at all…but when the Reaper comes for Musk and all his associates, I hope they stand still.
It’s not just MAGAts brushing this off as an innocent gesture, but also much of the media (if they even bothered to cover it) and even the ADL (Anti-Defamation League). What is going on here?!?
The ADL response was incredibly disheartening. I have to assume the administration got to them, because HOW does one plausibly deny that those were Nazi salutes, especially an organization focused on violence against Jewish people? Did he hold the ceasefire over their heads? My mind is officially boggled.
Everyone is afraid of Musk’s money and determination to push the MAGA / Nazi agenda. I’m also disappointed in the ADL on its response to this.
The current ADL will not save us. The head is MAGA.
Yeah, the ADL called it an “awkward gesture” and asked that Musk be given “grace.”
WTF??????
The ADL has long been a right-wing political lobby group that has a well documented history of attacking social justice groups led by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ folks, immigrants, Muslims, and Arabs. You can look up “Drop the ADL”, it’s a great resource documenting their history of racism and bigotry. They are pro-police brutality, pro-surveillance, and are complicit in supporting the military-prison industrial complex. People need to stop platforming them or thinking they have anything to do with social justice.
I’m glad AOC called them out directly. She said something like, Thanks for letting us know we can’t trust you because you’re one of them.
i’m so glad we have her, one of the few who is apparently still willing to speak truth to power.
Yes! Her bravery & intelligence are admirable!
It seems like everywhere I’ve seen this covered, the headline is something like, “Musk’s Gesture Draws Scrutiny”. Like, desperate to NOT just call it what it fucking was: a goddamn Nazi salute.
I’m trying so fucking hard not to give into nihilism, because I have a young stepdaughter and I never want to give her the impression that the entire world is just filled with irredeemable garbage people and that’s all there is to it. But right now, I am failing miserably.
We cannot sit back and just watch this sh*tshow unfold. Anywhere. I know this is being said around social media (well, in my echo chamber), but this, with switching off the Spanish version of the Whitehouse website, and I believe the one covering women’s reproductive rights, etc, etc… this is fascism. No doubt about it.
I am German, my grandfathers unfortunately were Nazis (died before I was born), and we had the education to recognise the signs and to not let it happen again. So let’s not shut down and hope it will all go away. It won’t go away in the US unless it’s being fought vigorously, and here in the UK, or Europe for that matter, we all need to challenge our powers that be – I already wrote to some news outlets today calling them out for their covering and wording of the inauguration debacle. We can all do our bit and we must. Or else we have even darker times ahead!
Thank you, JDM. These are important points. We need to prepare for the fight ahead. Also, thanks for the important reminder that not everyone with Nazi parents or grandparents is a Nazi. Sometimes, we can get important insights from people who have fascist family members.
He IS awkward; he is embarrassingly awkward and socially stunted.
He is also a Nazi, which makes the cheering idiots in the crowd look and sound even more ridiculous.
This is going to be a wild Find Out season.
And yet…some people refuse to leave Twitter/X. Umm, they’re supporting a full-on nazi.
Right @Alex. I left it over 2 months ago. I don’t know why people still want to use that platform. I knew that it was going to get worse when people felt that it was ok to use vulgar and racist language without consequences. It’s also who Trump is.
I never really used twitter but I have now weaned myself off the Buzzfeed collections of funny tweets. I really wish they would start doing the same from another platform as they brought me joy every week! A tiny gesture but one I”m happy with.
Happy to say that I was officially done with X as of yesterday. I can’t support this insanity. Came to blue sky a few months ago and I’m here to stay.
It is what it is…AND IT IS 🤬 UP! 😪
The buffoonery of the inauguration not fazing me. Im relaxed with the rest of the 92. My husband showed me Elon nazi salute and I sipped my crystal light and didn’t bat an eye. Trump administration about to fk this country up.
This 92%er is also resting. I refuse to go back to the days of waking up every day wondering what the frick is he destroying today! Ready for the midterm elections….
A nazi salute on Dr. King’s day. I thought this putz wanted to colonize Mars. He should get on that asap. One way of course. On a brighter note, we all survived Day 1 of Trump 2.0. This too shall pass.
Well, Trump released 1,600 domestic terrorists last night without any witness protection put into place. So, I hope and pray everyone survived day one.
Elon Musk’s DOGE was sued literally minutes after Trump was inaugurated. From the Washington Post:
“A lawsuit claiming billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” violates federal transparency rules was filed within minutes of President Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday, kicking off a legal battle over a key aspect of the incoming administration’s agenda.”
“In a 30-page complaint obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its filing, the public interest law firm National Security Counselors says that the nongovernmental DOGE panel is breaking a 1972 law that requires advisory committees to the executive branch to follow certain rules on disclosure, hiring and other practices.”
Today marks the day the United States is broken. The sex offender, liar, cheat and felon takes office today and will systematically dismantle key departments in an effort to reform government.
As Putin’s puppet and with attention to the careful and deliberate undermining of the western alliance, its governments, and its democratic institutions, the US will be living proof of the famous Nikita Khrushchev quote:
“We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within..”.
This reign of terror will forever affect the US’s relationships with other countries that have been formed over hundred of years. His choice of key cabinet appointments will be mocked around the world and will weaken the US influence for years to come. The fact that he thinks he can control Musk only shows how delusional he really is.
The next few months will be dangerous for minorities as his followers take his comments as permission to take their treatment of these people into the light. They will now openly be able to show their true colours as bigots and haters. I foresee an exodus of Americans to Canada and other democratic countries.
2025 got off to a bad start with the LA fires but I think that was just the beginning.
I remember reading years ago that shortly after the end of WWII, one could not find a single supporter of A.H. or the Nazi party throughout Germany. No German would admit to voting for or supporting them. NO ONE.
I wonder when that’s going to happen here, because it will. Fortunately, we all saw flags and lawn signs, and listened to or read posts about “owning the libs,” so it will be so much harder, but there will come a day when few Americans will admit to supporting this…misadministration. There will always be the uneducated and uninformed who will swear everything that’s about to go down will be the fault of Democrats/Biden/Harris (that train is never late), but for many, they will deny their support, just like they did in Germany.
As we bemoan the next four years, let us all remember there will be midterms (Inshallah), and if enough of us are paying attention, we can castrate them by way of a House and Senate super majority. It could happen. Or perhaps hope just springs eternal. I’m depressed.
History will show those who curtseyed before the King as he loudly promised to destruction. It will also show all the Democrats who idly stood by during the inauguration — business as usual, despite all their warnings that Trump is a modern-day Hitler.
As reported by Heather Cox Richardson this morning: After praising Elon Musk, tRump told the crowd “He was very effective. He knows those computers better than anybody. Those vote counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide. So it was pretty good. Thank you to Elon.”
Make of it what you will.
I’m finding it so hard to feel hopeful right now. Richest man in the world buys unchecked power.
I am also surprised this comment didn’t get more notice. It’s…odd…and concerning. What is he alluding to? And I’m not one who buys into conspiracy theories. But there was such a flood of news yesterday that I’m sure many things have gotten overlooked.
Nothing says government efficiency like creating an entire new department with offices, employees, and most likely some sort of official logo. 🙄. Come to think of it, what’s it going to be? A variation on the swastika, and will they try to pass it off as no, really, it’s very American, Native Americans used this symbol (and yes, some did, but–they tried to say his Nazi salute was some sort of ‘awkward gesture’, so many corporate news outlets are not calling it what it is).
The hubris of Musk and all of these other billionaire tech asses who’ve so openly bent the knee to Trump is going to come back and bite them in the face soon enough. They’ve shown everyone all over the world now what they really stand for, and if they think that Trump is going to protect them once people become desperate, they’re wrong.
To anyone still on Twitter, why are you still there? There’s no ambiguity now; you’re supporting a Nazi. Quit Twitter, Quit Amazon, Quit Meta. They’re all supporting Trump.
Can’t they just die? Musk, Trump, a plane crash, something.
The aggressive greeting of a completely misguided archaic brutalist inhuman masculinity that despises women. That’s where these people want to go. That is their motivation.
Are there images of Musk’s nazi salute flooding all media? If not why not. This is so horrifying.
@tamsin – The images are flooding the British and European media. We see Musk for what he is – a Nazi.
He’s sporting a Hitler haircut, too.
Ivanka, Jared and the children are all Jewish. Trumps daughter and grandchildren. And he allows this.
The fact that nazis are feeling so comfortable showing themselves has become a terrifying worldwide phenomenon that just tells me some people never opened a history book. So baffling how we’re reverting to the true dark ages, negating progress and enabling white rich supremacists to rule the world..I fear where we are going.
Trending at the moment is a song from the 1980s by the Splitting Image comedy team entitled “I’ve never met a nice South African”. It’s on YouTube.
Google it. 🙂
According to one source, Musk appeared stoned during Trump’s inauguration.
Nobody has mistakely made that salute in eighty years. He’s a Nazi. We’re in trouble. And we need to do something.