As soon as once more, a presidential administration headed by Donald Trump is within the spotlight over allegations of hidden fascist sympathies. This time, it’s precipitated by what one observer known as a “stiff-armed salute” that presidential supporter and adviser Elon Musk did twice throughout inauguration festivities.
Critics have stated it’s a clear Nazi salute, whereas others have claimed it was just an awkward motion. Maybe it was simply the world’s worst dab.
Musk turned the controversy over his gesture into one thing like a joke about Nazis. On X, he posted, “Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations!” and “Wager you probably did nazi that coming.”
This isn’t the primary time that Trump or someone close to him has been accused of sending fascist messages, even when they denied doing so. Nor even is it the primary time a well known determine endorsing Donald Trump has been accused of giving a Nazi salute.
As a scholar of far-right extremism, I often overview cases of coded fascist symbols and different right-wing messages being despatched by public figures and their supporters, some extra apparent than others.
In plain sight
Like Musk, TV commentator Laura Ingraham ended a fiery speech endorsing then-candidate Trump in 2016 with a rigidly outstretched arm along with her palm down – within the actual method German Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s and rank-and-file modern neo-Nazis carry out the “Sieg Heil,” or Nazi salute. Ingraham dismissed the criticism and in 2025 defended Musk’s action.
In 2021, the Conservative Political Motion Convention arrange its center stage within the form of an odal rune. That’s an historic pagan image coopted by Germany’s Nazi regime and worn prominently throughout World Warfare II on the uniforms of the brutal Waffen SS models. Social media erupted in outrage over the likeness, and columnists spilled a lot ink. Occasion organizers rejected the criticism, calling it “outrageous and slanderous.”
Trump himself has been reluctant to criticize white supremacists. In August 2017, he responded to a reporter’s assertion that neo-Nazis had “began” the violence throughout and after a rally they held in Charlottesville, Virginia, by saying “(t)hey didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis. And also you had some very dangerous folks in that group. However you additionally had people who had been very wonderful folks on each side.”
Throughout the September 2020 presidential debate, Trump responded to a request from moderator Chris Wallace to sentence right-wing paramilitary teams by as a substitute referencing one among them, saying, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”
Just some months later, a number of Proud Boys members would help spearhead the violent insurrection in opposition to the peaceable switch of energy on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Some of them had been convicted of federal crimes for his or her efforts, although upon retaking workplace in 2025, Trump pardoned them or commuted their sentences.
Extra overtly, in November 2022 Trump invited Kanye West to dinner at Mar-a-Lago, regardless of West’s having posted antisemitic remarks not too long ago on social media. Additionally on the dinner was well-known antisemite and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, whom Trump denied knowing anything about forward of time, saying he arrived “unexpectedly” with West.
Coded messages
In different extra summary and lesser-known incidents, Trump might make his sympathies recognized with out making direct statements himself. And I’ve personally noticed white supremacists comment upon – and take encouragement from – these implied messages on Telegram channels devoted to antisemitism and hate.
In February 2018, throughout Trump’s first time period as president, the Division of Homeland Safety issued a 14-word press launch titled “We Must Secure The Border And Build The Wall To Make America Safe Again.” I and different investigators of far-right extremism attributed this phrase’s use to a transparent canine whistle of the frequent white supremacist saying generally known as “the 14 phrases” – “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
In June 2020, Facebook removed Trump marketing campaign adverts for iconography invoking Nazi focus camp symbols that “violat(ed) our coverage in opposition to organized hate.” A marketing campaign official disputed the association, saying different teams, together with Fb and anti-fascist teams, used the same symbol.
In September 2024, pro-Trump CEO Mike Lindell’s firm MyPillow ran a sale discounting a pillow from $49.98 to $14.88. Critics rapidly identified that this aligned with the 14-word white supremacist slogan and the numerical reference “88” that white supremacists use to imply “Heil Hitler,” as a result of H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. Lindell denied any connection between the worth and right-wing messaging.
Screenshot of WhiteHouse.gov
And on the very day he was inaugurated for his second time period, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people, together with no less than two alleged members of the Proud Boys, for his or her actions on Jan. 6, 2021. And he commuted the sentences of 14 people, including four members of the Proud Boys.
This extraordinary transfer was applauded by Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was amongst these pardoned. Others who received presidential clemency stated they had been grateful to Trump and inspired by his motion.
Signaling fascism
Sending these types of fascist and white supremacist messages enable Trump and his supporters to courtroom right-wing extremist supporters whereas claiming innocence within the face of public outrage.
In the event that they deny the allegations of veiled fascism or white supremacy, Trump and his backers can declare their opponents are infected in opposition to them and conducting ideological witch hunts.
Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
However failure to straight deny allegations of fascism is a standard technique utilized by far-right and radical conservative actions in search of to obscure deeper links to extremist teams to keep away from public backlash.
The dearth of express admission can find yourself leaving these actions and symbols open to interpretation. Trump’s MAGA motion members, led by his interior circle of advisers and lieutenants, have constantly sought to use outrage and anger to generate extra momentum and a focus for his or her agenda.
However because the outdated saying goes, “the place there’s smoke there’s hearth” – and on this case the smoke might be nearer to a book-burning bonfire in Berlin than a tiki torch carried in Charlottesville.
