Olivia William || Issue 12 || February 4, 2025
On Monday, January 20th, 2025 Billionaire Elon Musk attended President Trump’s inauguration. After the inauguration Musk spoke at a rally after the event and was hyping up the crowd.”This was no ordinary victory. This was a fork in the road of human civilization,” he said. “This one real ly mattered. Thank you for making it happen! Thank you.” He then proceeded to bite his bottom lip, he thumped his right hand over his heart, fingers spread wide, then extended his right arm out, emphatically, at an upward angle, palm down and fingers together pointed forward. The then did it again to the crowd behind him. This gesture was extremely reminiscent of the notoriously fascist salute, This action
sparked heated debate over its meaning. Many people defending Musk’s actions claimed that he did the action by accident because of the excitement of the rally, like the Anti Defamation League . Others claim he was performing a “Roman salute”. But what is it? The “Roman salute” was a greeting
performed by the Romans in the Roman empire. However, this idea was misconstrued by fascist Italian leaders in the 1920s. Even though it is often called a “Roman salute”, there is no evidence that ancient Romans actually used this exact gesture. The gesture was first given its ideological ties by Gabriele D’Annunzio, and then popularized by Benito Mussolini. So even if it’s meant to be a “Roman salute” it still has historical ties to fascism regardless of Musk’s original intentions. Many people have taken videos of themselves doing the salute and posting it to social media in solidarity with Musk. To the surprise of many of those supporters they were terminated from their jobs because of the inappropriate and hateful behavior. People denouncing Musk’s actions have shown their distaste by vandalizing Tesla properties mocking his nazi supporting behavior. Following this incident Musk began influencing Germany’s election for chancellor. Endorsing Germany’s Alt right party (ADF) and speaking over video during a party on January 25th. Brushing away the ADF’s actions and connection to Nazism. Musk commented on how Germany has “too much of a focus on past guilt,” as an apparent effort to wipe away the actions and ideologies of the Nazis that has influenced generations of Germans. He also commented “It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything” and “We don’t want everything to be the same
everywhere where it’s just one big sort of soup,”. Along with Musk’s salute incident many Germans were outraged by his behavior. This all happened 2 days before Poland commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Which is one of the most significant days of memorial on the German calendar. Currently Germany’s youth is experiencing a spike in antisemitism and reverting back to those concerning beliefs. It has become such and is
sue that many schools are making it mandatory to take students to visit Auschwitz to make sure history will not repeat itself. Overall, Musk’s critics have criticized his words and his timing including journalist Mathieu von Rohr for Spiegel, one of Germany’s most important news magazines. President Trump has not made many comments on Musk’s behavior so far. But it’s unknown what other actions he will do to address his behavior or continue on with it.
The Hudsonian 