Priest Gets Defrocked After Mimicking Elon Musk’s Nazi-Like Salute at Anti-Abortion Rally
The now-former priest, who’s also a popular far-right British commentator, told the crowd, “The people who understand, cheer… The people who do not, reach for their pitchforks.” Erm!
Photo: Screenshot Politics
It seems Saturday’s National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, D.C.—where Vice President JD Vance told the women of America to get pregnant right now—was even more wretched than we thought. Calvin Robinson, who used to be a priest at an Anglican Catholic Church parish in Michigan, also spoke on Saturday.
Earlier this week, Robinson, a prominent far-right commentator who moved from the U.K. in 2024, posted a short clip of himself delivering his closing remarks at the anti-abortion rally by imitating Elon Musk’s Inauguration Day salute, which very obviously resembles a Nazi salute. The clip went viral after Right Wing Watch reposted it, and widespread public outrage on Wednesday prompted the church to remove Robinson’s license.
Father Calvin Robinson finished his remarks at the National Pro-Life Summit by throwing an Elon Musk salute, much to the delight of the crowd. pic.twitter.com/cAE9VyTsl1
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) January 29, 2025
“At approximately 3:00 pm today (1/29) members of the College of Bishops of the ACC were made aware of a post made on X showing the end of a speech made by Calvin Robinson at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, DC,” the ACC’s statement says. “In it, he closed his comments with a gesture that many have interpreted as a pro-Nazi salute.” It continues, “His action appears to have been an attempt to curry favor with certain elements of the American political right by provoking its opposition.”
The ACC says it “warned” Robinson that “online trolling” is “incompatible with a priestly vocation and was told to desist.” That didn’t happen! “Clearly, he has not,” the statement concludes, “and as such, his license in this Church has been revoked. He is no longer serving as a priest in the ACC.”
How did we get here, you may ask, a mere 10 days into Donald Trump’s presidency?? Let me back up.
On Inauguration Day, Musk, a noted charisma void, celebrated Trump’s victory by declaring that he was throwing his heart out to the crowd, something that no one does—let alone someone like Musk, who very clearly does not have a heart to throw at all. “My heart goes out to you!” he declared, slamming his hand into his chest and then throwing out his arm in what neo-Nazis across the internet have been celebrating as a Sieg Heil. He then performed an encore salute for good measure. Whether intended as a Nazi salute or not, that’s certainly what it looked like. Musk has refused to apologize, instead opting to tweet Nazi puns with laughing emojis.
And now, as expected, Musk’s “salute” and subsequent trolling are prompting supposedly ironic copycats.