Did Elon Musk just do a Nazi salute?
And if not, what exactly was that?

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Charlie Warzel

Staff writer

(Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty.)

Did Elon Musk actually toss off a Sieg Heil at Donald Trump’s inauguration rally today?

A lot of people online seem to think he did, based on data from their eyeballs. Freeze-frame images of Musk on social media show the world’s richest man at a podium in Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena engaging in what could definitely be construed as a Nazi salute. Video clips of Musk’s speech support this conclusion. Musk stands at the podium, graced with the presidential seal, and thanks the crowd. Then he forcefully slaps his right hand to his chest and rather violently extends his arm outward diagonally to the audience. Multiple historians have backed the idea that Musk’s gesture was indeed a Nazi salute. “Thank you,” Musk says. He makes the gesture to the crowd, turns 180 degrees, and repeats it to the rest of the crowd behind him. “My heart goes out to you,” he adds, placing his hand back on his chest.

What’s left out of much of the discussion is that Musk is supremely, almost cosmically awkward and stilted. All close observers of Musk—and I am one—know this.

So which one is it? A mask-off full-Nazi moment, or just a graceless tech baron not in full control of both his arms and his feelings?

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