As soon as once more, a presidential administration headed by Donald Trump is within the highlight 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 mentioned it’s a clear Nazi salute, whereas others have claimed it was simply an ungainly movement. 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 “Bet you did nazi that coming.”
This isn’t the primary time that Trump or somebody near 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 recurrently 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 precise method German Nazis within the Nineteen Thirties and Forties and rank-and-file fashionable neo-Nazis carry out the “Sieg Heil,” or Nazi salute. Ingraham dismissed the criticism and in 2025 defended Musk’s motion.
Laura Ingraham speaks and gestures at a Trump rally in 2016.
In 2021, the Conservative Political Motion Convention arrange its middle 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 Conflict 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 “started” 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 you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.”
In the course of 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 considered one of them, saying, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”
Only a few months later, a number of Proud Boys members would assist spearhead the violent rebellion towards the peaceable switch of energy on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A few of them have 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 just lately on social media. Additionally on the dinner was well-known antisemite and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, whom Trump denied understanding something about forward of time, saying he arrived “unexpectedly” with West.
The evening earlier than the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, individuals carrying torches and chanting fascist slogans marched by way of the College of Virginia campus.
Coded messages
In different extra summary and lesser-known incidents, Trump could 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 widespread white supremacist saying often known as “the 14 words” – “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
In June 2020, Fb eliminated Trump marketing campaign adverts for iconography invoking Nazi focus camp symbols that “violat(ed) our policy against organized hate.” A marketing campaign official disputed the affiliation, saying different teams, together with Fb and anti-fascist teams, used the identical image.
In September 2024, pro-Trump CEO Mike Lindell’s firm MyPillow ran a sale discounting a pillow from $49.98 to $14.88. Critics shortly 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.
An inventory of the 14 individuals whose Jan. 6-related sentences President Donald Trump commuted.
Screenshot of WhiteHouse.gov
And on the very day he was inaugurated for his second time period, Trump pardoned greater than 1,500 individuals, together with at the least two alleged members of the Proud Boys, for his or her actions on Jan. 6, 2021. And he commuted the sentences of 14 individuals, together with 4 members of the Proud Boys.
This extraordinary transfer was applauded by Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio, who was amongst these pardoned. Others who obtained presidential clemency mentioned they have 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 court docket 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 towards them and conducting ideological witch hunts.
Members of the family and mates of individuals imprisoned for his or her actions on Jan. 6, 2021, wait outdoors the Washington, D.C., jail for his or her launch on Jan. 22, 2025.
Celal Gunes/Anadolu through Getty Photos
However failure to straight deny allegations of fascism is a standard technique utilized by far-right and radical conservative actions looking for to obscure deeper hyperlinks to extremist teams to keep away from public backlash.
The dearth of specific admission can find yourself leaving these actions and symbols open to interpretation. Trump’s MAGA motion members, led by his inside circle of advisers and lieutenants, have constantly sought to make use of outrage and anger to generate extra momentum and a focus for his or her agenda.
However because the previous saying goes, “where there’s smoke there’s fire” – and on this case the smoke might be nearer to a book-burning bonfire in Berlin than a tiki torch carried in Charlottesville.