After Steve Bannon was accused of wrapping up his CPAC speech with a Nazi salute, prompting one far-right French politician to cancel his appearance at the conservative confab, prominent white nationalists said that the gesture has gotten “a little excessive” even for them.
A month after “first buddy” Elon Musk sparked intense outrage for empathically throwing up his right arm during his Inauguration Day speech, provoking loud denunciations across the world over what many felt was a “Sieg Heil,” Bannon appeared to replicate the gesture from the CPAC stage.
Calling for Donald Trump to run for a third term, the former Trump strategist yelled “fight, fight, fight” while the audience cheered. He then quickly flashed his stiff arm out in an angular fashion with his palm down before ending his speech with an “amen.”
Nick Fuentes, an influential neo-Nazi activist whose followers call themselves “Groypers,” reacted to Bannon’s speech by calling it “crazy” that suddenly the fascist gesture was “in now” among conservatives.
“Elon threw up a Roman salute, and then the other thing at CPAC – Bannon gets up there – this was some sick s***,” Fuentes said on his Thursday night podcast. “Bannon gets up there and says, ‘Trump’s gonna run in ‘28!’ He goes, ‘We want Trump!’ Then he throws up a straight-up Roman salute! It’s getting a little uncomfortable even for a guy like me! Even I’m starting to feel like that guy in that picture who wouldn’t Heil Hitler!”
Fuentes went on to note how ironic it was for him to say how “uncomfortable” he was getting with the increased number of salutes occurring at conservative events, pointing out that he was the one who’d written “policy for Supreme Leader Kanye West” based on Adolf Hitler’s ideology.
“It’s getting even a little excessive for me,” he added. “I don’t know. It’s getting a little too real. I was just kidding, for the most part. I was kidding, largely.”
Richard Spencer, a notorious white supremacist who infamously shouted “Hail Trump” and threw up a Nazi salute following Trump’s 2016 election, also took issue with Bannon’s gesture and felt he was just trying to get a reaction.
“Steve Bannon is a Roman Catholic Irishman … a nationalist and populist … a self-described Christian-Zionist … a man who denounces racism and demands greater representation of African-Americans at tech companies … and a man who lazily initiates a ‘Hitler Gruß’ just before saying ‘Amen,’” Spencer tweeted on Friday afternoon.
“The Manson Family had a more coherent ideology than MAGA. And the liberal criticism that American “fascism” is merely a personality cult around Trump seems justified,” he added. “At least Elon—an atheist eugenicist obsessed with rockets—seems to have really meant it!”
Spencer, perhaps best known for helping lead the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, has since claimed that his views have moderated. He even surprisingly endorsed Kamala Harris in the last election.
Following Bannon’s speech, Jordan Bardella – the president of France’s far-right National Rally – pulled out of his planned CPAC appearance because “one of the speakers provocatively made a gesture referring to Nazi ideology.”
Asked by the New York Times to react to Bardella’s remarks, Bannon denied making a Nazi salute, claiming he merely “waved to the MAGA movement as I always do in my motivational speeches.” He also lashed out at Bardella, calling him “too weak to govern France” and asserting that “the leaders of this worldwide revolution gathered @ CPAC consider him a coward.”
Meanwhile, another CPAC speaker – Sound of Freedom producer Eduardo Verástegui – also replicated the gesture on Friday morning, saying his “heart goes out to all of you” while drawing applause as he held his right arm out in the familiar position. Other copycat incidents have occurred in recent weeks at right-wing conferences, prompting outcry and repercussions for the speakers.
