Elon Musk’s controversial gesture at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year was “definitely a Nazi salute”, his estranged daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson has said. Speaking with Teen Vogue, the 20-year-old said the moment was “insane”.
“The Nazi salute s**t was insane. Honey, we’re going to call a fig a fig, and we’re going to call a Nazi salute what it was. That s**t was definitely a Nazi salute. The crowd is equally to blame, and I feel like people are not talking about that. That crowd should be denounced,” Ms Wilson told the magazine.
Asked if being vocal about her political views online, especially about her father, took a lot of space in her day-to-day life, she said, “No, it doesn’t. It really doesn’t.”
Ms Wilson is not concerned about the Tesla CEO but she feels “annoyed” whenever people associate her with Musk.
Ms Wilson, who came out as transgender in 2020, had in 2022 filed a plea to get her name legally changed, for she did not want to be related to her biological father in “any way, shape or form.”
Nearly two years after she filed the petition, Musk talked about her in an interview with Jordan Peterson, asserting his daughter was “killed by the woke mind virus.”
Ms Wilson said she was not left with “any room to care anymore.” She even called the Jordan Peterson interview the “most cathartic moment of my entire life by far.”
“I had all this pent-up energy, I had wanted to speak out for so long after being (essentially) defamed in a book, after being doxxed,” she added.
A few weeks ago, Musk appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and addressed the controversy surrounding the alleged Nazi salute, which he performed in front of the Republican crowd. This led to many of his critics accusing him of being a fascist.
“I hope people realise I’m not a Nazi,” Musk said in his defence, noting the gesture he made was in a positive spirit.