ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reacted to the controversy sparked by his gesture during the Inaugural event inside Capitol One Arena, in Washington, DC, on Monday.

“This was no ordinary victory,” he said of Donald Trump’s election win. “This was a fork in the road of human civilization. This one really mattered. And I just wanna say thank you for making it happen! Thank you.”

Musk slapped his chest and extended his right arm at an angle as if to say ‘My heart goes out to you.’

He then turned around and repeated the salute for the people behind him.

Social media interpreted the gesture as a Nazi salute. The salute was popularized by German dictator Adolph Hitler. It was later adopted by the Nazis.

NBC News edited the delayed video feed to remove Musk’s gesture.

Democrats often compared President Donald Trump to Hitler on the campaign trail.

Musk seemed to dismiss the hand gesture controversy on X (Twitter). He called it a “tired” attack, and he blamed “legacy media propaganda” for leading the attacks against him.

On Monday, Musk tweeted: “The legacy media is pure propaganda. You are the media now.” He retweeted a post by @libsoftiktok featuring images of Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren making the same hand gesture.

In a follow-up post, Musk wrote: “Since legacy media propaganda is considered a “valid” source by Wikipedia, it naturally simply becomes an extension of legacy media propaganda!”