The Week In Musk: Heil to the chief

(By Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Animated by the dawn of the Republican Party’s federal trifecta in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Elon Musk delivered what looked like a Nazi salute while addressing a crowd of thousands of revelers gathered at Capital One Arena for President Donald Trump’s post-inaugural celebration. "This was no ordinary victory. This was a fork in the road of human civilization," he said moments before the salute. With his right hand, he proceeded to give his chest a single thump over his heart before extending his arm out at a roughly 60-degree angle, his fingers and thumb squeezed together and palm facing down. He then spun around and repeated the salute to the crowd behind the stage, adding, "My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured."

Many viewers identified the gesticulation as a Nazi salute, including Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian whose work focuses on 20th-century fascism. She described it as “a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one.” Some on the right saw the same thing. "Did Elon Musk just Heil Hitler," asked MAGA influencer Evan Kilgore in a post on X. "We are so back." Rolling Stone reported that Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of an American neo-Nazi group, wrote on his Telegram channel, “I don’t care if this was a mistake. I’m going to enjoy the tears over it.”

Musk has rejected the characterization, sharing a post from an X user that deemed it the “salute hoax” and said it was a “dirty tricks campaign” waged by the Democratic Party. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks,” Musk added. “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.” Musk also suggested the salute was an autism reaction, endorsing a post from an X user who wrote, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by autism.”

The same line was adopted by Andrea Stroppa, a Musk deputy living in Italy, but not before he first lauded the salute. "Roman Empire is back, starting with the Roman salute," Stroppa wrote in a post on X that featured a photo of Musk’s salute. The "Roman salute” is something of a misnomer, as there is no evidence that Romans used the gesture, according to classics scholar Martin Winkler. The salute is also banned in Italy due to its fascist origins, something that Stroppa may have realized as he deleted the celebratory tweet and replaced it with a post describing Musk as an "autistic" person who was merely expressing his excitement. "He does not like extremists,'' Stroppa added.

If Musk does disapprove of extremists, he has an odd way of showing it. He reinstated the accounts of numerous white supremacists after purchasing Twitter three years ago. And according to NBC News, verified accounts venerating Hitler and Nazism proliferated on X last year. In Germany, meanwhile, Musk recently endorsed the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), saying, “Only AfD can save Germany, end of story.” The AfD’s leadership includes Björn Höcke, who has criticized the Berlin Holocaust Memorial and suggested that Hitler was not “absolutely evil.”

In the U.S., media outlets struggled to succinctly cover Musk’s Nazi salute. “Elon Musk Ignites Online Speculation Over the Meaning of a Hand Gesture,” read one New York Times headline. “Musk's straight-arm gesture embraced by right-wing extremists regardless of what he meant,” reported the Associated Press.

DOGE gets an extreme makeover

The Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was established on Monday by Trump, with Musk receiving a White House email address and office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The executive order states that DOGE will replace the US Digital Service, an official part of the Executive Office of the President. By abandoning the initial plan to have DOGE operate as an external advisory panel, the Washington Post reports, Musk and his deputies will have “far greater insight and control over federal operations from within the White House” and avoid disclosures that outside groups consulting the White House are required to make.

Here’s more from the Post report:

[Musk] will be able to deploy a team of handpicked software engineers to every government agency, where under Trump’s executive order they will be granted “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems.” …Armed with sensitive data, Musk could draw on expertise gathered from his business empire — including deploying artificial intelligence — to achieve his aims, people familiar with the matter said.

Musk had vowed to use DOGE to shave a whopping $2 trillion off the federal government’s annual operating budget of more than $7 trillion. He toned that down a bit, saying recently he hoped to find $1 trillion in savings. But Trump’s executive order states that DOGE will not “impair or otherwise affect… the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.” The primary focus of the “18-month DOGE agenda” will be “Modernizing Federal Technology and Software to Maximize Efficiency and Productivity.” It is unclear what, if any, budget-cutting Musk can accomplish with the new DOGE.

But is this what Musk wanted all along? The Post report suggests that Musk was always more focused on upgrading the executive branch’s superannuated bureaucratic technology — transforming it via the use of AI and data-mining — than aggressive budget cutting. It was fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who was expected to serve alongside Musk as co-leader of DOGE, who suggested firing every member of the federal workforce whose Social Security Number ends in an odd digit. Ramaswamy announced this week he has left DOGE and reportedly plans to run for governor in his home state of Ohio.

Musk trashes $500 billion technology investment Trump announced at the White House

Musk berated OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman on Tuesday following the ChatGPT founder’s visit to the White House. Alongside Trump, Altman announced Stargate, a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle to spend up to $500 billion for computing infrastructure to power artificial intelligence. Trump lauded the project, saying it would create “over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately.”

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk insisted on X. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

Altman reacted to Musk impassively, writing on X, “Wrong, as you surely know” and inviting Musk to visit the first Stargate site in Texas. Musk responded by describing Altman as a “swindler” and "liar." He also exhumed some of Altman’s anti-Trump posts, some dating back to the 2016 election and another from 2021. Of course, back in 2016, Musk endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s economic and environmental platform and described Trump as “not the right guy” for the White House, adding that he lacked character.

Musk previously served on OpenAI’s board but renounced the position in 2018 over myriad disagreements — including Musk’s demands for majority equity and full control of OpenAI and Altman’s subsequent refusal. Musk sued OpenAI last year, accusing the organization of violating antitrust laws and seeking to block it from converting into a full for-profit business. Now, Musk is seeking to rival ChatGPT by developing his Grok chatbot, even utilizing OpenAI’s old San Francisco offices.

Trump, meanwhile, shrugged off the billionaires’ row. “They're putting up the money, the government isn't. They're very rich people,” he said when discussing the Stargate consortium with reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “[Musk] hates one of the people in the deal. The people in the deal are smart people. But Elon happens to hate one of them. I have certain hatreds of people too.”

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The Elon Index (1/17-1/23)

X posts this week: 317

X posts per day average: 45.2

Most discussed topic: The Nazi salute controversy

Post of the week:

Follow of the week:

(The account was fake.)

Tesla Stock Price: 412.38 (+8.73% YTD)

Current net worth: $440 billion (+7.95 billion YTD)

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Musk’s ideas for Trump's second term: Defund NPR, privatize TSA, jail Fauci

Musk has declared the second Trump administration an era of “techno-optimism.” But many of his ideas for Trump are rather bleak. This week Musk suggested Trump defund NPR, privatize the TSA, and imprison former Chief Medical Advisor to the President Anthony Fauci (who recently received a preemptive pardon from Biden) and former Health and Human Services Secretary Rachel Levine. Musk also suggested that Trump should sign an executive order declaring English “the official language of the US” and requiring that all federal government materials be published in English exclusively.

Trump endorses Musk as potential buyer of TikTok

Musk has ideas for Trump, and Trump has ideas for Musk. Specifically, Trump floated Musk as a potential U.S. buyer of TikTok, the hugely popular video-sharing app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Under a law passed by Congress last year, TikTok was required to sell its U.S. operations to a domestic buyer by the end of last week. That didn't happen, but an executive order signed by Trump gives ByteDance 71 days to sell its U.S. operations to a party approved by Washington. So far, Trump’s list of approved buyers includes Musk and Oracle chairman Larry Ellison.

Musk reportedly finances legal representation for far-right extremist in the UK

Musk is financing the legal battles of Tommy Robinson, a far-right extremist based in the UK, according to a report from iNews:

Musk has not revealed any donations himself, but a message sent out on Robinson’s X and Telegram accounts stated: ‘We are grateful to Elon Musk and his team at X for agreeing to provide support to Tommy Robinson for two specific legal cases.’ The statement from Robinson’s team says the assistance from the world’s richest man was ‘unexpected.’ ‘We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Elon and his team for their unexpected and generous assistance with these cases. Tommy is immensely grateful for their support, which came as a complete surprise,’ it reads.

Robinson currently faces charges under the UK’s Terrorism Act for refusing to grant law enforcement access to his cell phone. Musk, having spent the better part of the past month dabbling in British right-wing politics, wants to unseat Reform UK Nigel Farage and possibly replace him with Robinson. (Though, per a Financial Times report, Musk has privately walked back his plan to donate funds to Reform UK given his new role in the U.S. government.)

Elon's edgelord humor

Musk used the word “retard” to attack those inclined to believe a YouGov poll quantifying his unpopularity in Europe and repeated the slur in other instances. He also approvingly shared a rape joke directed toward U.S. intelligence officials whose security clearances were revoked by Trump.

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Musk Minutes

Trump is reportedly considering ditching the National Space Council, an executive body he brought back at the start of his first term. Its role in the industry is a bit nebulous, but ditching the council would mean the removal of another layer of regulatory tape for Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, and other private space companies. (Gizmodo)

In a private message to YouTuber NikoWrex, Musk admitted to using a “boosted” account in the video game Path of Exile 2, meaning he had someone else level up his character on the popular dungeon crawler. (Kotaku)

Air traffic controllers operating around the Caribbean were forced to divert a number of flights last week after a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded mid-flight, causing dangerous debris to rain down near unsuspecting pilots. A similar situation arose earlier this month in the South Indian Ocean. (NPR)

CBS 58, a Milwaukee-area station, fired one of its weather forecasters this week after she criticized Musk’s Nazi salute on her personal Instagram. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

To protest Musk, dozens of digital communities on Reddit have banned posts that link to X. The subreddits participating in the ban have more than 40 million combined members. (NBC News)

Finally, the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, has removed a portrait of Musk from its gallery in response to his Monday salute. (Artnet)