Netanyahu defends Elon Musk against allegations that he made a Nazi salute at Trump rally
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Elon Musk was being “falsely smeared” over a viral video of the Tesla CEO performing what seemed to be a Nazi salute.
United States
Don't miss out on the headlines from United States. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Elon Musk was being “falsely smeared” over a viral video of the Tesla CEO performing what many have said was a Nazi salute during a rally for President Trump’s inauguration.
Mr Netanyahu came to Musk’s defense on Thursday, rejecting claims that Musk performed a Third Reich-style hand gesture as he echoed the richest man in the world’s claim that he was being targeted by leftists.
“@elonmusk is being falsely smeared,” Netanyahu wrote on X, which is owned by the Tesla CEO.
“Elon is a great friend of Israel. He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” the prime minister added.
“He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state.
“I thank him for this,” Netanyahu concluded.
Musk’s trip to Israel in November 2023 came after he faced intense backlash for agreeing with a user on X who claimed that Jewish communities push “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
The allegations of antisemitism against Musk resurfaced Monday after he made the gesture twice during the Trump rally, which threw social media into a maelstrom as many claimed it was an overt “Sieg Heil.”
Legit https://t.co/Z8TacZUlDF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2025
But the SpaceX boss apparently only “made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm” rather than a “Nazi salute”.
Mr Musk retweeted the quote from the Anti Defamation League - a non government organisation which seeks to combat anti-Semitism - thanking them for their assessment of the situation.
He also posted his own take on the controversy.
“Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” Musk, 55, said in a post on X as he addressed the backlash.
The Tesla CEO and “First Buddy” is not allowing the incident to ruin his first day at his new job.
President Donald Trump has officially signed the executive order creating Mr Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency.
“There will be meaningful progress every week,” Mr Musk vowed on his platform X,
However the outrage about his “odd-looking” gesture during his speech at a Washington DC arena to celebrate Mr Trump’s inauguration continues.
After getting pumped up about the prospect of landing a man on Mars and planting an American flag, the X boss pounded his chest and shot his right arm in an angular - and unfortunate - motion toward the sky.
“Standing ovation for Elon Musk. By far the biggest reception of the day,” American CNN anchor Erin Burnett said. “You saw him come out with that odd-looking salute.”
“It was odd-looking,” Burnett said.
It didn’t take long for observers online to weigh in.
🚨 NEW: Elon Musk "throws his heart" out to the crowd and left-wingers are interpreting it as a N*zi salutepic.twitter.com/9oxSiID2Yx
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 20, 2025
“Yeah Elon gave a Sieg Heil,” one user posted on Bluesky, while others pointedly stated he gave a “Nazi salute.”
It comes as Mr Musk’s cost-cutting effort, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was sued minutes after Mr Trump took the oath of office in Washington, DC.
Leading body language expert Dr Louise Mahler analysed the gesture and said Mr Musk was not mimicking a Nazi salute.
“Mr Musk will no doubt at some point explain his intention, however from a body language perspective he did not appear to be mimicking a Hitler salute, but rather a natural human gesture that represents the future,” she said.
“The gesture is something people do and has been with us since the days of Ancient Rome with the outstretching of your arm with your palm out being a gesture that represents the ‘future’ and ‘success.’
“It is also associated with Nazi Germany because Hitler used it, as he did with many gestures from Ancient Rome, but it is not a Nazi salute – it is instead a natural gesture humans make when talking of the future.”
It comes as the lawsuit claimed DOGE violated US federal transparency rules, kicking off a legal battle over a key aspect of the incoming administration’s agenda.
The lawsuit, from a public interest law firm called National Security Counsellors, claims DOGE is operating as a federal advisory committee, and as thus is violating a law called the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or FACA, which regulates the functions and transparency of federal advisory committees.
FACA requires these groups to be “fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed by the advisory committee,” the lawsuit states. The lawsuit was filed shortly after noon (4am AEDT) in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, National Security Counsellors told CBS in the US.
The law requires that advisory committees are “objective and accessible to the public,” according to the US General Services Administration.
Neither the Trump campaign nor Mr Musk have commented on the lawsuit.
Vivek Ramaswamy who worked with Mr Musk on DOGE, is expected to step away from the new government effort as he embarks on a campaign for Ohio governor later this month.
Earlier, US tech multibillionaires Mr Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were given prime positions at Trump’s inauguration, in an unprecedented demonstration of their power and influence in the White House.
The tech tycoons, whose companies are among the world’s most valuable, have spent the 10 weeks since the election courting favour with Mr Trump, marking a dramatic shift from Silicon Valley’s more hostile response to his first term four years ago.
Attendees also included Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, along with the search engine’s founder Sergey Brin. TikTok CEO Shou Chew sat in the back row of the stage, even as his platform’s future remains uncertain.
Indeed, Mr Musk’s influence on Mr Trump has been a source of intrigue and fascination.
Mr Trump was propelled back into the White House, in part, due to the monumental influence of Mr Musk. The Tesla and X boss was instrumental in getting the 78-year-old re-elected, spending more than A$445 million to back Mr Trump and other Republicans during the 2024 election campaign, making him the single biggest donor from either party.
He also used his own social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to not only blatantly spruik for the Republican nominee, but he also hosted a fawning interview with Mr Trump on the site and appeared with him – MAGA hat and all – at rallies.
Mr Musk has since become a key adviser on policy and personnel for Mr Trump, who tapped him to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (the cartoonishly titled DOGE) along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy with the aim of making massive cuts to the US federal budget. According to the New York Times, Mr Musk is expected to have an office in the White House complex as part of his role.
In the two-and-a-half months since election day, Mr Musk continued to make most of his political moves straight from his X account, where he has more than 212 million followers.
His ongoing influence was shown in full force last month when he and Mr Ramaswamy sent off dozens of posts on X where they vigorously opposed a short-term funding plan rolled out by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. Mr Musk’s opposition ultimately led toMr Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance voicing their own concerns about the bill, which forced Mr Johnson back to the drawing table.
Lindsay Owens, a former senior economic policy adviser to Democrat Elizabeth Warren told The Hill these posts created “choppy waters” for Johnson and Trump, as Democrats dubbed Mr Musk the “co-president”.
“I absolutely think he’s [Musk] going to be weighing in on congressional negotiations, on the appropriations process, on the tax fight, on agency rule making,” Ms Owens said.
“My instinct is, and we’re already kind of hearing murmurings of this, is that Trump is going to have a hard time wrangling Musk.”
Mr Trump, who ran his campaign largely on an anti-immigration platform, has also shifted his stance on H1B visas at the nudging of Mr Musk, which are used to bring highly skilled technology workers from other countries such as India.
While Mr Trump has previously labelled the visas “unfair” and said they take jobs from American citizens, he told reporters on New Year’s Eve that “we need smart people coming into our country”.
The backflip came after South African-born Mr Musk tweeted: “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B.”
That influence has reportedly deepened amid reports Mr Musk is largely living in a cottage on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump’s Florida estate, giving him unfettered access to the incoming president.
Mr Musk has reportedly attended personnel meetings, sat in on phone calls with foreign leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and spent hours with Mr Trump in his office.
“Did he move into Mar-a-Lago? I think he moved in,” Florida Republican Representative Aaron Bean said last week. “He’s got the president’s ear. The president trusts him.”
Right now, Mr Trump appears to like having Mr Musk close by.
Just prior to New Year’s Eve, Mr Trump seemingly posted a private message to Mr Musk from his Truth Social account. “Where are you? When are you coming to the ‘Centre of the Universe,’ Mar-a-Lago. Bill Gates asked to come tonight. We miss you and x! New Year’s Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT.”
Still, anti-Musk Republicans say the tech mogul is unlikely to have carte blanche access to Mr Trump now with easy access to the Oval Office slightly different from navigating the Mar-a-Lago grounds at West Palm Beach.
Others have wondered how long the notoriously fickle Mr Trump will take before he tires of him as he has done with so many advisers before. And there have been a few cracks.
Recently, Mr Trump has become slightly irritated by suggestions “President Musk” is really the one with his hands on the wheel, referring to the innuendo as a “hoax”.“The new [hoax] is: President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk,” Mr Trump said during an appearance in Arizona just prior to Christmas.
“No, no. That’s not happening! No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you,” the President-elect added. “And I’m safe, you know why? He can’t be. He wasn’t born in this country.”
Some in Mr Trump’s circle are openly hostile to the tech billionaire. Longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon called Mr Musk “evil” and vowed to boot him out of Mr Trump’s inner circle.
“He will not have a blue pass to the White House, he will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person,” Mr Bannon told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera earlier this month.
But those fighting words may just be a case of sour grapes for Mr Bannon. Because when Mr Trump was sworn in, an “honoured” Mr Musk was at the US Capitol, seated alongside two of the other top three richest men in the world, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, right next to the Trump family and members of the president-elect’s cabinet.
Indeed, as Mr Trump raised his right hand to take the oath of office, Musk was front and centre right where he thinks he should be.
More Coverage
Originally published as Netanyahu defends Elon Musk against allegations that he made a Nazi salute at Trump rally
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds take dramatic step in legal war
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have revealed details of their next move in her legal row with It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni.
‘Strapped in seats’: Shock new detail in plane crash probe
New detail has surfaced about the passengers killed and air traffic control staff involved in a mid-air crash in Washington DC. World famous hero pilot Captain Sully has also revealed his theory. Follow updates.