Honestly, I'd give Musk the benefit of the doubt if he would even say that it was a joke or he didn't mean to make that particular motion. His refusal to say it wasn't intentional and it wasn't a nazi salute means, IMHO, that he ment it that way and it wasn't a joke, but a power play.

Isn't it concerning to have someone in the highest offices of power who thinks that's a funny joke, someone who has the lack of taste to find it funny in that context, the lack of diplomacy to think it an acceptable thing to do in such an important situation, and the lack of fear of consequences because he's in an almost completely untouchable position, and the unwillingness to say anything to excuse or apologise for it? Only the President can really do anything to him, and it's quite likely that he funds the president such that that can't/won't happen.

Trump has set a precedent of pardoning the January 6th insurrectionists - people who break the law doing what he wants get pardoned.

The supreme court is majority Republican, and he's been dismissing senior department heads and replacing them with people who have been pre-vetted for their Trump loyalty.

And he's possibly setting the precedent of ignoring court rulings he doesn't like; it's at least being accused by Republican nominated federal juste John Coughenour[1], JD Vance has spoken about ignoring supreme court rulings[2].

And The Whitehouse has announced that Elon Musk will police himself over his own conflicts of interest[3].

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

[2] https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/31/politics/john-roberts-yea...

[3] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/white-house-says-mus...

True, but that was a nazi salute wearing a thick layer of plausible deniability, not a "bad joke."

First it was excitement, autism, and now it's a bad joke. Whatever you call it, I will never forgive the people that normalized this in politics.