On the heels of Donald Trump’s inauguration, Jon Stewart took inventory of the “historic vibe shift” occurring in the USA—together with an ungainly hand gesture from Tesla CEO Elon Musk that neo-Nazis themselves have reportedly recognized as Nazi-esque.
Throughout Monday’s episode of The Day by day Present, Stewart confirmed a clip of Musk delivering remarks at a post-inauguration occasion held at Washington, DC’s Capital One Enviornment. After thanking Trump supporters, Musk positioned his hand over his coronary heart earlier than extending his arm ahead, his palm downturned, in a gesture similar to the salutes adopted by fascist Italy and Germany within the twentieth century.
“Charitably, I’m going to say that was simply an ungainly ‘My coronary heart goes out to you’ gesture,” Stewart stated, including that Musk may have opted for making a coronary heart along with his palms. “You understand, pay attention: It’s a fucking nerve-racking day. You’re not usually a public speaker. It’s a one-off gesture. Please strive to not use it once more,” the host reasoned.
Stewart then performed further footage of Musk repeating the gesture to the group seated behind him onstage. “Son of bitch!” the host exclaimed. “You actually need to ensure that folks within the again see it, I assume. I’m simply gonna be beneficiant and say possibly that was Elon’s try at ‘dabbing on the haters.’”
As Musk’s gesture went viral on Monday, the Anti-Defamation League defended the hand sign as “awkward” and “not a Nazi salute,” including on Musk’s X platform: “On this second, all sides ought to give each other a little bit of grace, even perhaps the advantage of the doubt, and take a breath.”
Elsewhere in his monologue, Stewart took intention at inauguration attendees “who warned Individuals to shun this wannabe fascist dictator referred to as Trump” however appeared desirous to fête Trump nonetheless: “‘Take a look at me, Ma! Oh, let’s go see Hitler and get a fast selfie first! Hiya! Take a look at us! Ooh, a fast one for the ’gram!’”
Which spectators, particularly, was Stewart accusing of hypocrisy? “Former president [Barack] Obama was there. George Bush appeared type of there…positively excessive. Even Mike Pence confirmed up, I assume to let the group end the job. Solely Michelle Obama appeared to have the constant moral stance of claiming, ‘Once they go low, I keep the fuck dwelling.’”
Other than Musk, there have been a number of different tech giants in attendance as Trump signed a variety of sweeping government orders, together with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta cofounder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Stewart jokingly described the group as a “plethora of stocky, bald billionaires who all appeared to go to the identical biohack life-extension clinic and say, ‘Give me the Lex Luthor.’”
The late-night host then riffed on the implications of so many highly effective folks showing to be in Trump’s pocket. “Don’t be involved that these tech titans management Google and TikTok and WhatsApp and Instagram and X, and another method that we talk within the yr of our Lord 2025,” joked Stewart. “As a result of, you already know, they’re not gonna censor us.”
