Featured Image Credit: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Social Media, News, US News
Jess Hardiman
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Social Media, News, US News
Musk has finally responded after being accused of doing a 'Nazi salute' at Trump's inauguration yesterday.
The Tesla and SpaceX billionaire gave a speech at the celebratory rally at Capitol One Arena in Washington, visibly excited as he spoke to the cheering crowds.
At one point, he told Trump's supporters: “I just want to say thank you for making it happen.”
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Musk then slapped his chest with his right hand and thrust it into the air, his palm facing towards the ground.
Turning around to address those behind him, he repeated the move and added: “My heart goes out to you."
Many people interpreted the gesture as a 'Nazi salute', with one person writing on X: "Historian of fascism here. That was a Nazi salute - and a very belligerent one too."
British political commentator Owen Jones said: "This honestly could not look more like a Nazi salute."
Someone else fumed: "THERE’S NO WAY ELON MUSK DID A SIEG HEIL AT TRUMP’S INAUGURATION.
"A F**KING NAZI SALUTE AS CLEAR AS DAY. WHAT IS HAPPENING."
Musk has now spoken out about his infamous speech, boldly arguing that the comparison to Nazi Germany is 'tired'.
Quoting one of his previous tweets, in which he claimed Democrats would launch a campaign of 'dirty tricks' against him, he said: "Frankly, they need better dirty tricks.
"The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired."
In his speech, Musk described Trump's win as 'no ordinary victory'.
"This was a fork in the road of human civilization," he said.
"You know. There are elections that come and go. Some elections are, you know, important, some are not. But this one, this one. This one really matters."
He continued: "It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured. Thanks to you. We're going to have safe cities finally. Safe cities, secure borders, sensible spending. Basic stuff.
"And we're going to take those to Mars. I mean, Can you imagine? How awesome it will be. To have American astronauts plant the flag on another planet for the first time?How inspiring would that be?"
Musk vowed to 'work his a** off' for Americans, adding: "I'm super fired up for the future. It's gonna be very exciting. As the president said, we're gonna have a golden age. It's gonna be fantastic.
"And one of the fundamental things, that one of the most American values that that I love, is optimism and feeling like we're gonna, We're gonna make the future good. We're gonna make it good."