Elon Musk’s Daughter Addresses Allegations of “Nazi Salute”

Elon Musk’s Gesture and Backlash

Elon Musk’s daughter responded to accusations that her father made a Nazi gesture at Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The incident occurred on Monday (January 20) as President-elect Donald Trump was sworn into the White House for the second time. During the inauguration ceremony, the tech billionaire and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla addressed the crowd.

“I just want to say thank you for making this happen,” he said before slapping his chest with his right hand and extending his arm up, palm down. He then turned to the crowd behind the podium and repeated the gesture.

Many compared it to the Nazi salute, signaling submission to Adolf Hitler.

Now, amid widespread backlash online over the gesture, his ex-daughter Vivian Wilson has also weighed in and took to Instagram Threads to hint at the situation.

Wilson, one of the billionaire’s six children with ex-wife and writer Justine Musk, officially changed her name in 2022 to reflect her gender identity as a trans woman and take her mother’s maiden name. She has also repeatedly criticized her father for his anti-trans comments.

“I just want to say: let’s call things by their damn names.” she wrote on the Instagram Threads platform on Tuesday (21). “Especially if two shovels were made in a row, depending on the reaction of the first shovel.”

She didn’t name Musk in any of the updates but hinted that she was referring to the Capitol One arena incident. Wilson then shared a second update seemingly responding to claims that the gesture could be explained by his “autism.”

“I don’t know why you’re reacting so strongly, I’m obviously only talking about card suits,” she quipped. “I mean, I have ADHD, and this was CLEARLY just an accident that people interpreted as something other than just card suits.

“At the end of the day, there’s no evidence that I’m talking about anything other than card suits,” she joked. “People suggesting that I’m not just talking about card suits just shows how dishonest people and the media can be.”

Read her latest update: “For those who can read between the lines, do you realize how damn easy this is to do? Plausible deniability, honey. I’m just saying.

Vivian Wilson’s Response and Support

Wilson is not the only one who has spoken out against Musk following this gesture. Since Monday, Grimes – a musician who was previously in a relationship with Musk and has several children with him – distanced herself from him online, while My Chemical Romance’s Frank Iero and Green Day also took aim at the billionaire on stage in South Africa, changing the lyrics to “American Idiot” to take a jab at him.

Since his inauguration, Musk, who was integral to Trump’s election victory and was later appointed by the new US president to head his new Department of Government Effectiveness, has railed against the backlash.

While he has yet to formally condemn Nazism, he reached out to X to agree with a tweet that read: “Can we please stop calling people Nazis? It didn’t work during the election, it doesn’t work now, it’s tired, boring and old stuff, you’ve burned out its effect, people don’t feel the shock of it anymore, they’ve cried wolf too many times.”
He replied: “Yes, exactly 🥱.”

In a separate post on X, he wrote: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The “everyone is a Hitler” attack is sooooo boring.”

Frankly, they need dirtier tricks.

The “everyone is a Hitler” attack is sooo tired 😴 https://t.co/9fIqS5mWA0

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2025

In addition to calling out her father for this gesture, Vivian Wilson also took to Threads to react to President Donald Trump’s recent ruling that the United States of America will only recognize two genders: male and female.

“I want every transgender person to read this document,” Wilson wrote, sharing a link to the order. “It is important to understand what we are fighting against and the shamelessness of their hatred.”

She also hinted that she might leave the country after Trump’s victory. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but yesterday confirmed it for me. I don’t see my future in the United States,” she wrote after the election results were announced (via Independent).

“Even if he’s only in office for four years, even if the anti-trans rules don’t magically go into effect, the people who voluntarily voted for it aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

Before this, last summer, Vivian responded to her father’s words that she was “killed by the awakened mind virus.”

During an interview with conservative commentator and psychologist Jordan Peterson, the Tesla and X CEO repeatedly deadnamed and misgendered his daughter. He also claimed he was “tricked” into signing documents allowing Vivian to use puberty blockers, which he described as “really just sterilizing drugs.”

He added that his “son” was “killed” by the “awakening mind virus” and that he “lost his son.”

I love and am endlessly proud of Vivian.

— ⏳ (@Grimezsz) July 26, 2024

Responding to Threads, Wilson said, “I disowned him, not the other way around,” meaning she had legally changed her name to replace “Musk.”

In response to Musk’s claim that she was “murdered,” she also replied, “I look pretty good for a dead bitch.”

Former co-star Musk Grimes also showed her support, writing on X: “I love Vivian and am endlessly proud of her.”

The reaction to his gesture at the inauguration isn’t the first time the tech mogul has faced something like this. Since acquiring Twitter, which he soon renamed X, Musk has been criticized for allowing pro-Nazi profiles to flourish on the platform.

He has also faced backlash for spreading right-wing memes and appearing to support anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Reports suggest that this has led to an exodus of advertisers from the platform in 2023 AP News.

Most recently, Musk supported Germany’s far-right populist AfD party. “Only the AfD can save Germany” he wrote last month. The party denies any connection with Hitler, and Musk urged people not to compare the AfD leader to the dictator.