Comment by notahacker

The "hey, maybe he's just a bit overexcited and socially awkward with his gestures" excuse would also be a lot more plausible if it was about someone who hasn't spent the last couple of years giving written and verbal encouragement to the far right, who happened to be exactly the sort of person who would see a Nazi salute as a super clever gesture that owns the libs, is deniable to the parts of his fanbase that don't like Nazis, and meets with uproarious approval with the parts of his fanbase that like Nazis. A bit like when he was tweeting out his approval of interviews describing the holocaust as "humane" and then promptly deleting when called out on it or retweeting neo-Nazis talking about Jews' "dialectical hatred against whites" as "the actual truth" but then apologising for it. Sure, mentally he probably has more in common with a 13 year old carving swastikas into their school desk because it's edgy than Himmler, and his far right admirers hate his H1-B visa stance to the point he seems to be really overcompensating, but that doesn't mean we should act like it's a normal way for an adult with the ear of the president to be behaving.