CBS’s comedic duo of Stephen Colbert and Taylor Tomlinson repeated the dishonest talking point that Elon Musk did a Nazi salute at a Trump inaugural celebration on their respective Tuesday installments of The Late Show and After Midnight.
Colbert went first and acknowledged the booing from the studio audience as he introduced a video clip of Musk, “Before Trump took the stage at Capital One Arena last night, attendees got a speech from Elon Musk, who—I'm guessing you've seen this footage. Who finished with a—well, this is what he did.”
In the video, Musk told the crowd, “I just want to say thank you for making it happen. Thank you.”
Musk also tapped his heart and extended his arm as if to say, “My heart goes out to you.”
Plenty of people have been photographed giving speeches to crowds where they acknowledge the crowd with an outstretched arm, but nobody pretended they were giving a Nazi salute because that would be crazy. However, Colbert was less generous:
Wow. That sure looked like what it was. 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. For the last 80 years of human history, there are only a couple acceptable positions for a fully extended arm. It goes pet the puppy, tousle your nephew's hair, and hail a cab. Okay? In between nephew down here and hail a cab up here, this is called the danger zone. Everybody knows that who's not a Nazi.
Later in his monologue, Colbert applied his Reductio ad Hitlerum to Donald Trump’s new White House decorations, “Over the fireplace on the Oval Office mantle, Trump has added new silver eagle figures. Huh, wasn't there another political party that had a thing for silver eagles with their wings spread? Who was that? If anyone remembers, just raise your hand.”
That rather absurd bit of “logic” was bookmarked with a replaying of the Musk video.
For her part, Tomlinson put up a picture of Musk and recalled, “Here’s something you will recognize from history. Yup, last night, Elon did what appeared to be a Nazi salute, twice. His defenders say he was just doing a Roman salute to which we said ‘is that better?’”
Since After Midnight took the Monday Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday off, Tuesday was her first opportunity to react to Trump’s inauguration and she chose to focus on the billionaires who support him:
Musk wasn't the only weird rich guy at this event. The entire row was filled with tech billionaires. If you put them all together, they have trillions of dollars and one half of a human soul, but you really have to scrape ‘em together. You got to get every little bit. I mean, think of how much money they have, and they still look like that. It’s—they look like The Avengers if their arch nemesis was a livable wage.
Tomlinson then circled back to the picture of Musk at the end of her asking, “Mark Zuckerberg got caught trying to look down the top of Jeff Bezos's fiancé…Now, some said her outfit wasn't appropriate for an inauguration, but you know what else isn't appropriate for an inauguration?”
It is one thing to mock Musk as “weird,” but to claim he is a Nazi is a smear. Nazis don’t tend to honor the victims of the Holocaust or visit Israel shortly after October 7.
Here is a transcript for the January 21-taped shows:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
1/21/2025
11:47 PM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: Before Trump took the stage at Capital One Arena last night, attendees got a speech from Elon Musk, who—I'm guessing you've seen this footage. Who finished with a — well, this is what he did.
ELON MUSK: I just want to say thank you for making it happen. Thank you.
COLBERT: Wow. That sure looked like what it was. 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. For the last 80 years of human history, there are only a couple acceptable positions for a fully extended arm. It goes pet the puppy, tousle your nephew's hair, and hail a cab. Okay? In between nephew down here and hail a cab up here, this is called the danger zone. Everybody knows that who's not a Nazi.
…
Over the fireplace on the Oval Office mantle, Trump has added new silver eagle figures. Huh, wasn't there another political party that had a thing for silver eagles with their wings spread? Who was that? If anyone remembers, just raise your hand
***
CBS After Midnight
1/22/2025
12:41 AM ET
TAYLOR TOMLINSON: Okay, great news. Here’s something you will recognize from history. Yup, last night, Elon did what appeared to be a Nazi salute, twice. His defenders say he was just doing a Roman salute to which we said “is that better?”
Musk wasn't the only weird rich guy at this event. The entire row was filled with tech billionaires. If you put them all together, they have trillions of dollars and one half of a human soul, but you really have to scrape ‘em together. You got to get every little bit. I mean, think of how much money they have, and they still look like that. It’s—they look like The Avengers if their arch nemesis was a livable wage.
Mark Zuckerberg got caught trying to look down the top of Jeff Bezos's fiancé. Okay, alright, what did you expect from a guy who invented invading your privacy? People online were criticizing her outfit, but come on guys, we already knew she was into wrinkly whites. Now, some said her outfit wasn't appropriate for an inauguration, but you know what else isn't appropriate for an inauguration?
