Written by Findlay Normanton.
It’s a great testament to the pace of Donald Trump’s attempts to implement policy reforms that Elon Musk’s did-he-didn’t-he Nazi salute, which took place last month, already seems to have faded into the distant past. Since January 20th, Trump has so far let free over 1500 convicted criminals, started a fight with the Canadians only to back down almost immediately, and openly advocated ethnic cleansing in the Middle East. If Musk’s salute has accomplished anything, it has been firing the starting gun one of the most disruptive and insane American administrations of modern times. Since the last Trump presidency.
Musk’s gesture threw up many questions, not least in pointing out the irony that a man who thinks that you can’t say anything anymore can stand behind the president’s podium and throw a Nazi salute, with literally no consequences. The reaction of Musk’s supporters has variously been that he was actually overstimulated due to his autism (unlikely), giving his heart to the audience (unlikely he has one), or doing a ‘Roman salute’ (whatever that is). Whatever his motivations, the delight the right has taken in throwing liberals and leftists into disarray is a worrying watershed moment in the hard right’s migration into government, and the movement of agitative, ‘triggering’ online anti-woke culture into the real world.
I’m not going to waste your time with an in-depth discussion of whether or not the gesture constituted a Nazi salute, or how seriously Musk meant it if it was. Is Elon Musk a Nazi? Probably not. Although the fact that I’m not sure should be a warning sign. But Musk’s blatant and obvious engagement with the most infamous tyrannical government in history, with vast swathes of commentators and supporters ready to defend him as though he’s the Second Coming, sparks immense concern for the direction of the American government in years to come.
Beyond Musk’s Nazi salute, the parallels between the MAGA movement and the 1930s Nazi party are many and striking. Principally, the Nazi party’s philosophy consisted of fostering immense nationalistic sentiments, coupled with passionate military support, whilst othering minority groups and centralising power, all in an effort to gain power by telling its supporters that their problems are not their fault.
The modern Republican Party is following this trajectory. Most obviously, the levels of patriotism emanating from Trump’s campaigning and government are nauseating. The name of the movement refers to making America great again. The defining image of the election campaign was a blood-stained, just-shot Donald Trump with his fist in the air in front of the star-spangled banner. His inaugural speech in 2016 promised an end to ‘American carnage’. Amongst the voters and the commentators and the campaigners, the mythology of Donald Trump is doused in a traditional concept of the US, binding together his followers with American pride.
Meanwhile, Trump’s newfound military ambitions seem profoundly fascistic. His plans to clear out Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to create a ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ under American control shows blatant disregard for international convention, and has the look of Hitler’s invasion of the Saar territory, at least partly due to the benefits its coalfields would bring to the Nazi government. Elsewhere, Trump’s desire for Canada to become America’s 51st state, and his attempts to claim Greenland, are redolent of Hitler’s desire for ‘lebensraum’ to expand Nazi territory, significance and power.
The cultivation of a unified national identity was one method for the Nazi party to ostracise minority groups by juxtaposing the nation with these groups; the Trump playbook makes use of this tactic as well. Look at the way the Trump campaign discussed ‘illegal aliens’, or the derision at the transgender community, with the plans to ban transgender people from the military. Here, these divisive ploys are on display in full force, juxtaposing the traditional American patriot — the soldier — with the strange, unknown, harmful force of transgender ideology, the latter desperate to overthrow the former. The message is clear: your misery is not your creation, but the fault of nebulous forces out to overcome the USA.
At the same time, the personal centralisation of power around Adolf Hitler in the 1930s is matched by the coalescence of power around a coterie in Trump’s inner circle. The parallel isn’t direct – Trump hasn’t yet banned elections or political parties (for all that he’s undermined the electoral process). But increasingly, the same people have power over communication, technology and government. Elon Musk is now a government official, as well as controlling one of the largest social media sites in the world, and a space exploration company given at least $3.8 billion by the US government in the fiscal year of 2024. Mark Zuckerberg controls two near-ubiquitous social media sites and attended Trump’s inauguration. Also there was Jeff Bezos, owner of a gargantuan multi-national company and the Washington Post. Wherever you look, the power of the world is in the hands of the few, and they’re more than happy to fraternise with the new President.
What we are witnessing is the dangerous transmutation of 21st Century America’s ideas into the chaos of the 1930s. To be clear: I’m not saying that America is certainly the world’s next fascist state. The chances are that the USA will continue to be the same country it always has been, with a complex relationship with national pride and an even more complex relationship with the international community. But the direction of travel is concerning, as the nation founded on the promise of individual freedom from tyranny takes a perilous journey around the edges of authoritarianism. Who knows when it will be over. But we should all be very worried.
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