New ‘Nazi salute’ furore erupts in US as Democrat is accused of making the same gesture as Elon Musk

America's political right is screaming hypocrisy over a clip of a top Democrat that may, or may not, vindicate Elon Musk.

Cory Booker and Elon Musk doing their respective gestures.

Remember that moment, back in January, when Elon Musk was accused of doing a “Nazi salute” on stage?

The Tesla and SpaceX boss, riding high on his own supply after spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help Donald Trump get elected the previous year, got a little too excited after the US President’s inauguration, and made a strange gesture.

Mr Musk brought his right hand to his heart and then, with force, thrust it up and out to his side. He then turned and did the same thing towards the people seated behind him.

Elon Musk’s gesture. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

Mr Musk paired it with a message of, “my heart goes out to you,” which suggested he was, albeit clumsily, gesturing as though he were sending his heart out to the audience. Well, more like biffing it at them.

Still, it was not the sort of gesture any of us see in our daily lives, and it bore a striking resemblance to a sinister one from the past, and it was enacted with a strange aggression. So those predisposed to believe the worst of Mr Musk did so.

The hostile reactions ranged from believing it was a straight-up, intentional Nazi salute, to believing it was merely intended as a piece of trolling, to thinking it looked like a Nazi salute, but only by accident.

Mr Musk didn’t necessarily help himself by refraining from offering a clear explanation of what he meant by the gesture until days afterwards.

“Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” Mr Musk said in his first response.

Later, he complained about media coverage of the moment.

“How many legacy media publications, talk shows, whatever, try to claim that I was a Nazi because of some random hand gesture at a rally where all I said was that my heart goes out to you?” he told CNBC.

Exhibit B in my growing “Elon Musk just does weird stuff when he’s on stage” file. This is when he bounced around behind Mr Trump like a kid at a birthday party who’s had too much cordial. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

Exhibit C (this one was accompanied by a roar). Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

Exhibit D. “This the chainsaw for democracy!!!” Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Mr Musk’s gesture happened more than four months ago now, yet it lives on, particularly on the more extreme wings of American politics. On the left, it’s still occasionally brought up as evidence that Mr Musk is some sort of fascist.

The billionaire didn’t help himself, in that regard, by lobbying so enthusiastically for Germany’s far-right AfD party before the nation’s most recent election. There’s something much more substantive to critique, there, than an awkward hand gesture.

On the right, a great deal of fun has been had perusing every Democratic politician’s body movements since January 21, in search of anything that could be characterised as a parallel to Mr Musk’s gesture, and hence a flagrant example of hypocrisy.

Enter Cory Booker. He’s a Democratic Senator from New Jersey, and a former (perhaps also future) failed presidential candidate.

Over the weekend Mr Booker attended a party convention in Anaheim, California. At one point, during his time on stage, he performed a gesture similar to Mr Musk’s. He started by bringing his right hand to his chest, and then extended the arm in a wave to the crowd.

Here is how the still images of those moments look, side-by-side. And while you can watch the footage of each in the player at the top of this article, I’ll pop that video here too.

Cory Booker and Elon Musk doing their respective gestures.

So, the upshot is, elements of the American right have accused the media of hypocrisy for reporting on one of these gestures, but not really on the other.

”You reported on Elon’s hand gesture and compared him to a Nazi. I was looking for your article on Cory Booker’s salute, but I couldn’t find it,” Libs of TikTok account runner Chaya Raichik tweeted at MSNBC.

“I’m sure you probably just missed this story by mistake. Here’s the clip. I look forward to your report condemning him.”

“Democrat Senator Cory Booker appears to do a ‘Nazi’ salute in front of a large crowd of Democrats. I’m looking forward to the wall to wall coverage from the ‘honest’ and totally not biased media,” said another right-wing influencer, Colin Rugg.

“Same gesture, different political party. Funny how that works,” said activist Brandon Straka, joking (sarcastically) that Mr Booker was “giving a heartfelt, patriotic salute” while Mr Musk was “personally resurrecting the Third Reich, according to the media”.

Cory Booker's gesture, which is being compared to Elon Musk's.

“Cory Booker gives the exact same ‘Nazi’ salute to 4000 California Democrat Party delegates that the left has been screeching about Elon Musk doing for at least 130 days. I look forward to hearing all about how this is (D)ifferent,” said Kevin Dalton. The (D) being a reference to Mr Booker being a Democrat.

“I look forward to Senator Chris Murphy asking Cory Booker about doing the ‘heil Hitler salute’ like he did about Elon,” said Sara Rose.

We could keep going; there is no shortage of similar examples.

Mr Musk himself reposted a clip of Mr Booker’s gesture with a raised eyebrow emoji.

“It’s hilariously ironic to see the ret**ds who called Elon Musk a Nazi for a gesture doing the same thing,” the post he shared read.

A spokeswoman for Mr Booker, Maya Krishna-Rogers, has said the Senator was “obviously just waving to the crowd”.

“Anyone who claims his wave is the same as Elon Musk’s gesture is operating in bad faith. The differences between the two are obvious to anyone without an agenda.”

Originally published as New ‘Nazi salute’ furore erupts in US as Democrat is accused of making the same gesture as Elon Musk