Historians say Musk clearly made Nazi salute – but supporter claims he was inspired by Roman greeting adopted by Benito Mussolini
The back-to-back gestures were swift and enthusiastic, and they elicited huge cheers from the crowd. After Elon Musk ignited controversy with two fascist-style salutes during Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, critics accused him of giving the Nazi salute.
Some of Musk’s supporters rushed to defend him, claiming that he had instead been giving the Roman salute. “The Roman empire is back, starting with the Roman salute,” Andrea Stroppa, a Rome-based adviser to Musk, wrote on in a post that he later deleted.
