As Elon Musk continues to face criticism for appearing to make a Nazi salute during Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Stephen Colbert is weighing in, agreeing that the gesture “looked like what it was.”
As Colbert teed up the footage during his monologue on Tuesday night, the “Late Show” crowd immediately began booing, prompting the host to chuckle and note that it seemed they’d seen the footage already. Nonetheless, Colbert played the clip of Musk saluting the crowd by putting his right hand to his chest and then forcefully extending his arm straight out, palm down, fingers straight.
“Wow, that sure looked like what it was,” Colbert quipped. “Now, I don’t know if Musk intended to do a Nazi salute. He says he is not a Nazi, but what I do know is people who aren’t Nazis know how to avoid doing a Nazi salute.”
“Because, and this is very important. This is very important,” he continued. “For the last 80 years of human history, there are only a couple of acceptable positions for a fully extended arm, OK? It goes: pet the puppy, tousle your nephew’s hair, and hail a cab. OK? In between nephew down here and hail a cab up here, this is called the danger zone. Everybody knows that!”
Musk himself posted on X shortly after making the gesture on Monday, writing that Democrats “need better dirty tricks” because “the ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.” That said, more than just Democrats have called out the salute.
Right-wing extremists, white nationalists and actual neo-Nazis all celebrated the move online in the hours following the inauguration — including Nick Fuentes, who declared, “That was a straight up like ‘Sieg Heil’,’ like loving Hitler energy,” while German newspaper Die Zeit called it a Nazi salute and historians did, too.
Back in his monologue, Colbert quickly moved on, zeroing in on the reported redecorating happening at The White House since Trump moved back in.
“Over the fireplace on the Oval Office mantle, Trump has added new Silver Eagle figures,” Colbert said. “Huh. Wasn’t there another political party that had this thing for Silver Eagles with their wings spread? Who was that? If anyone remembers, just raise your hand.”
At that, the clip of Musk’s salute played once more, before Colbert started the show in earnest. You can watch Stephen Colbert’s monologue in the video, above.
