By Victoria Mejicanos, Jan. 28, 2025
On Inauguration Day, a time to celebrate the transition of power from one president to the next, billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who repeatedly made interferences in the election, gave a celebratory speech thanking the audience and made a gesture that sent a clear and aggressive message about where our country is headed.
In front of a podium with the presidential seal, Musk pounded on his chest in a gorilla-like manner, raised his arm straight in the air — fingers extended — and gave a Nazi salute. He then turned around, brought his arm back to his chest and aggressively repeated the Nazi salute to another section in the audience.
What’s more disturbing than the gesture itself is watching media outlets and other watchdog organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, which states its goal is to “(fight) all forms of antisemitism and bias,” refuse to acknowledge it as a Nazi salute, and instead provide weak explanations or excuses, calling it an awkward gesture or sign it off as part of Musk’s autism diagnosis.
The opinion editor for Newsweek even shared a statement on X defending Musk.
“I feel extremely confident asserting that this was not a Nazi salute,” Batya Ungar-Sargon wrote. “Elon Musk is a friend to the Jews. This is a man with Aspergers exuberantly throwing his heart to the crowd. We don’t need to invent outrage.”
As a journalism student, I understand that traditionally, before any outlet makes a claim, they must do their best to confirm the truth, whether it be talking to experts to confirm or the person accused of the controversy. But it is also the responsibility of the media to be as accurate as possible with all the information available to them.
The media has also been referred to in the United States as the fourth estate, which “reflects the unofficial but widely accepted role the news media plays in providing citizens with information they can use to check government power” according to the U.S Embassy and Consulates in Italy.
Musk has not denied that it was a Nazi salute and allows known neo-Nazis and pro-Nazi groups to flourish on an app he owns. These are facts. For the past several years, journalists have been failing to intervene as they are supposed to in the democratic process.
This is not the first fascist gesture resulting from a Donald J. Trump presidency, and the media’s blatant refusal to call out behaviors when they see them is not just disappointing but irresponsible, and it shows a free press is in jeopardy. It is a clear sign that fascism has become part of our democracy.
Fascism can be defined by three pillars, according to an article by the Public Leadership Institute. First is the demonization of domestic enemies. Through his executive orders in the past several days alone, it is clear that Trump is hellbent on making immigrants, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community enemies of the state. Trump also targets anyone who does not demonstrate blind loyalty to him and his policies.
Although he used religion to benefit his campaign, when the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, simply asked him to have mercy — one of the most basic teachings in Christianity — on marginalized groups, he called her “a radical-left, hard-line Trump hater” who is “not very good at her job:” and demanded a public apology.
The second element is preposterous lies. There are too many preposterous lies to count, but the worst, in my opinion, is the denial of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Throughout the beginning of the crisis, he compared the pandemic to the flu, and he insisted everything was under control. He also tried to sever ties with the World Health Organization when they declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic as cases surged globally. He has signed an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization for the second time in less than five years, according to the Associated Press.
The third element is contempt for democratic institutions. Besides trying to deny the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost, Trump has signed an executive order to try to end birthright citizenship, which he cannot constitutionally do. Twenty-two states have already sued him.
The time for apathy is over. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “In the end we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
When we look back on this time in history, many will regret not being able to say they did something to stop it.
Feature image by Connor Hampton
