In an interview with MacG, Musk’s father Errol spoke about the billionaire’s maternal side of the family being Nazi supporters.
While assessing Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th President of the US, comedian Jon Stewart criticised Elon Musk for what looked like a Nazi salute.
Making a gesture with his right arm, Musk tapped the left-hand side of his chest as he thanked Republican supporters for voting Tump back into the White House.
“I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” said the owner of SpaceX, X and Tesla to jubilant Trump supporters at the Capital One Arena in Washington.
Watch: Jon Stewart on Trump’s inauguration and Musk’s salute
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Jon Stewart’s take
However, The Daily Show‘s Stewart questioned the gesture.
“Charitably, I’m going to say that was just an awkward ‘my heart goes out to you’ gesture,” Stewart said.
The social commentator, who returned to the show after Trevor Noah left, suggested other gestures Musk could’ve used if he wanted to show gratitude.
“Taylor Swift has done that ‘my heart’ but she almost never does that ‘goes out to you’,” said Stewart.
Being seemingly more understanding, the comedian said the entrepreneur was probably nervous on what is a big occasion.
“But you know listen, it’s a nerve-wrecking day. You’re not normally a public speaker, it’s a one-off gesture, please try not to use it again,” Stewart said, just before another clip showed Musk repeating the Nazi gesture, this time to the people stationed behind him on the stage.
“You really wanna make sure the people at the back see it I guess,” said the TV show host.
The Nazi salute originated as a Roman salute, which was adopted by the Italian fascist movement in 1923.
The Nazi Party made the salute mandatory for all members in 1926, as a sign of loyalty to the party and its leader Adolf Hitler.
Musk’s Nazi ties
In an interview on Macgyver ‘MacG’ Mukwevho’s podcast in November 2024, Musk’s father Errol Musk spoke about the billionaire’s maternal side of the family being Nazi supporters.
Errol said that Maye Musk’s parents relocated from Canada to South Africa because they sympathised with the then-apartheid government.
“They used to support Hitler.”
Errol Musk talks about Elon’s maternal grandparents, who were members of the Nazi party in Canada and later moved to South Africa because they supported the Apartheid regime pic.twitter.com/dqy3wd0Efy
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) January 20, 2025
“They used to support Hitler and all that sort of stuff. Obviously, I don’t think they knew what the Nazis were doing,” he said.
“In Canada they were in the German party and they sympathised with the Germans. So when the Afrikaners came into power here in 1948, Maye’s father said he wants to be with the Afrikaners because he agrees with apartheid,” shared Errol.
“That caused a lot of tension with me because I was a director of NUSAS, which was the National Union of South African Students, which was a very anti-apartheid body.”
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