Elon Musk performed a salute while delivering a speech during the celebrations for Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, where he thanked audiences for Trump’s electoral victory. The salute caused a strong reaction online due to its similarity to a Nazi salute. Florence Pugh has also reacted to this viral event and shared her thoughts online.

Here is what Florence Pugh has said about Elon Musk and the gesture he made during his speech at Trump’s inauguration.

Florence Pugh slams Elon Musk for his salute

Taking to her Instagram stories, Florence Pugh reshared a post originally uploaded by The Hollywood Reporter’s Instagram handle. She then put the caption, “Twice.” This is a reference to Musk’s performing the gesture for the crowd two times, once for the audience in front of the stage and the second time for people seated behind him.

“Everybody learns, from a pretty young age, that the Nazis were unfathomably evil, and they performed a ‘Nazi salute,’ and this is something you don’t copy in your everyday life,” THR captioned the original post. This is followed by the question, “So, did #ElonMusk intentionally “sieg heil” at a #DonaldTrump inauguration rally? Sometimes it only matters what you do, not what you intend.⁠”

Also in her stories, the 29-year-old actress reshared a post that offered information about the companies that had made large donations to Donald Trump and Project 2025. She also reshared some posts expressing her support for the LGBTQ community.

Musk also responded to the criticism and backlash online. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter). (via BBC)

Although the gesture’s similarity to the Nazi salute has offended many, some commentators have defended Musk. Prominent British broadcaster and journalist Piers Morgan took to X to post that he believes that while Musk was “ill-advised” to do the salute, he did not really mean it as a Nazi salute.

Moreover, Andrea Stoppa, Musk’s confidant who helped him build ties with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, mentioned in a now-deleted X post that the gesture was not a “Nazi salute,” but rather Musk’s expression for “I want to give my heart to you.”