'They need better dirty tricks': Elon Musk on 'Nazi salute' row during Donald Trump inauguration

A controversy erupted over a gesture made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk during Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday. Some compared Musk's gesture to a Nazi salute. When Musk arrived on stage at the Capital One Arena he thanked the crowd for voting Trump to power for the second time. Subsequently, he tapped the left side of his chest with his right hand and then extended his arm with his palm open, repeating the gesture for the crowd seated behind him.

Reacting to the gesture, Claire Aubin, a historian who specializes in Nazism within the US, said Musk's gesture was a 'sieg heil,' or Nazi salute. However, Musk later hit out his critics, saying that his opponents needed 'better dirty tricks'. "The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired," he said.

During the inauguration inside the Capitol Rotunda, Musk was seated in a row that included other tech giants, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. All were seated behind Trump's wife, Melania, and children, though Musk was seated closest to Trump.

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Musk contributed roughly USD 200 million to America PAC, a super political action committee that worked to organise Trump support last fall. The proximity of so many of the world's wealthiest people to Trump's incoming government led former President Joe Biden to warn of a burgeoning US oligarchy of tech billionaires.

Among the projects Trump has assigned Musk is to work with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on an effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency. The mandate of the advisory group, which operates outside the formal government, is to slash federal bureaucracy, regulations and spending, a target Musk set last year at USD 2 trillion, roughly the size of the deficit.

(With inputs from AP/PTI)