Fact Check: Did Barack Obama, Kamala Harris Make ‘Nazi’ Salutes? [Video]

The controversy around Elon Musk‘s inauguration “gesture”, which some on social media have compared to a Nazi salute, has led to the reemergence of photos of Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris, striking poses with their arms outstretched in similar fashion.

Musk, who has been picked by President Donald Trump to lead a government-wide cost-cutting operation called DOGE, caused controversy on Monday after twice making a hand gesture in front of the crowd at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. that bore similarity to the “Sieg Heil” Nazi salute. Popularized in 18th- and 19th-century art depicting Romans, the gesture was co-opted by Adolf Hitler’s German Nazi party and has been kept alive ever since by neo-Nazi groups.

The Tesla and SpaceX billionaire said the claims it was a Nazi salute was a “dirty trick.” Responding to a user on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on …