Elon Musk’s one-arm gesture sparked outrage during a speech celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Musk thanked the crowd for “making this happen,” then placed his right hand over his heart before extending the same arm into the air directly in front of him. He then turns around and repeats the action to the person sitting behind him.

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

In response, Musk posted on X: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is too tired.”

Musk, the world’s richest man and a close ally of President Trump, made the gesture during a speech at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.

“My heart goes out to you. It is because of you that the future of civilization is secured,” the 53-year-old said after giving a second one-arm salute.

There was immediate backlash on social media.

Claire Aubin, an American historian who specializes in Nazism, said Musk’s gesture was a “Heil Sieg,” or Nazi salute.

“My professional opinion is that you are fine and you should trust your eyes,” she posted on X, referring to those who believed the gesture was an overt reference to Nazis.

“Here are the historians of fascism,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University. “It was a Nazi salute and a very militant salute.”

According to Italian media reports, Musk’s close friend Andrea Stroppa linked Musk to far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who posted the video of Musk , with the text: “The Roman Empire is back from the Roman tribute.”

The Roman Rite was widely used by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party in Italy and was later adopted by Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Italian media said Stropa later deleted his post. He later posted, “The gesture that some have mistaken for a Nazi salute is actually Elon, who is autistic, expressing his feelings by saying ‘I want to give you my heart,'” explain.

“That’s exactly what he said into the microphone. Elon doesn’t like extremists!”

The move comes as Musk’s political leanings increasingly shift to the right. He has recently issued statements supporting Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party and Britain’s anti-immigration party Reform Party.

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

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

“…What we don’t accept is whether this supports a far-right position. That’s what I want to repeat again.”

But some have defended Musk, including the Anti-Defamation League, a group formed to combat anti-Semitism.

“Elon Musk appears to have made an awkward gesture in the heat of the moment, not a Nazi salute,” the group posted on

Musk has become one of Trump’s closest allies and was tapped to co-lead the president’s so-called Department of Government Effectiveness.