President

President (pronounced prez-i-duhnt or preza-dint (plus many regional variations)

(1) The title of the highest executive officer of most modern republics.

(2) An official appointed or elected to preside over an organized body of persons.

(3) The chief executive (and sometimes operating) officer of a college, university, society, corporation etc.  Many corporate presidents function as something like a “char(man) of the board” rather than a CEO or COO.

(4) A person who presides.

(5) An alternative form of “precedent” (long obsolete).

1325–1375: From the Middle English, from the Old French president, from Late Latin praesidēns (presiding over; president of; leader) (accusative praesidentem) from the Classical Latin praesident (stem of praesidēns), the noun use of the present participle of praesidēre (to preside over, sit in front of).  The Latin word was the substantivized present active participle of the verb praesideō (preside over) while the construct of the verb was prae (before) + sedeō (sit).  The verb’s original sense was “to sit before” (ie presiding at a meeting) from which was derived the generalized secondary meaning “to command, to govern”, praesidēns thus meaning variously “the one who presides at a meeting”, “governor or a region”, “commander of a force” etc.  In English the construct is thus understood as preside + -ent.  Preside was from the Old French presider, from Latin praesidēre, the construct being pre- (before) + sedere (to sit).  It displaced the Old English foresittan which may have been a calque of the Latin.  The –ent suffix was from the Middle English –ent (which existed, inter alia, also as –ant & -aunt.  It was from the Old French -ent and its source, the Latin -ēns (the accusative singular was -entem), suffix of present participles of verbs in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th conjugations.  The word is used with an upper case if applied honorifically (President of Italy; President Nixon etc) but not otherwise but this is of the more widely ignored rules in English.  Modifiers (minister-president, municipal president, president-elect etc) are created as required.  The spelling præsident is archaic.  President & presidency are nouns, verb & adjective, presidentship & presidenthood are nouns, presidenting & presidented are verbs, presidential is an adjective and presiˈdentially is an adverb; the noun plural is presidents.  The feminine form presidentess dates from at least 1763 and is probably obsolete unless used in humor but that may risk one’s cancellation.

US politics in the last decade has had moments of strangeness so some things which once seemed unthinkable are now merely improbable.

In the US, “president” was used in the original documents of the constitution (1787), picking up the earlier colonial use as “officer in charge of the Continental Congress” and it had also been used in several of the colonies and that in the sense of “chosen head of a meeting or group of persons”.  During and immediately after the Revolution, the tile was adopted by the chief magistrates of several states but before long all instead settled on “governor”, emulating the colonial designation.  In the US, the most common slang shortening of president is “pres”, dating from 1892 although dictionaries note the earlier existence of “prex” which was student slang for the president of a university or college.  First recorded in 1828, as a Latin verb, it meant “a request, entreaty”.  The handy initialization POTUS (President of the United States) dates from 1879 when it was created as part of the “Phillips Code” a system devised by US journalist, telegrapher & inventor Walter Polk Phillips (1846–1920) to speed up the transmission of messages across wire services and reduce their cost (the services charging per letter).  Among those in the code was SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) and later (long after the original rationale had been overtaken by technology) journalists and others started using VPOTUS (Vice-President of the United States), FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) and NPOTUS (next President of the United States) the latter once applied to both Al Gore (b 1948; VPOTUS 1993-2001 and in 2000 the NPOTUS)) and crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013 and in 2016 the NPOTUS).  Word nerds, pondering nomination of the latest NPOTUS (Kamala Harris (b 1964; VPOTUS since 2021) as the likely Democrat nominee are wondering what will emerge to describe her husband should she become CMOTUS (Chief Magistrate of the United States), the options presumably FGOTUS (First Gentlemen of the United States) or FHOTUS (First Husband of the United States).  Presumably FMOTUS (First Man of the United States) won’t be used.

Lindsay for president agitprop.  There are some who find the prospect of Lindsay Lohan having her own nuclear weapons quite fetching.

While Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) as POTUS is desirable (and debatably inevitable), a tilt for the nomination in 2020 would have been premature because Article II, Section 1 of the US Constitution requires one be at least 35 years old to to serve in the office.  She became eligible on 2 July 2021 so it seems only a matter of time.  Of course she would need a running mate and the mechanism for that differs depending on whether she gains the Republican or Democratic nomination or runs as a third-party independent.  For the Republicans the choice is relatively simple in that it's a matter just of working out who will attract (1) the highest campaign contributions and (2) the most votes in the places they're needed (ie in the "swing states"; increasing existing surpluses in "safe states" is of only marginal interest).  For historic reasons, there's nothing to prevent the Republicans nominating two white, Christian, heterosexual men  and even if they deviate they choose the next best thing (Sarah Palin (b 1964; Republican nominee for VPOTUS 2008)).  The political stew makes things more challenging for the democrats because if someone white gains their POTUS nomination, the running mate needs to tick as many as possible boxes on the "desirable but not essential" list (person of color; female; lesbian; disabled; trans-something, non-binary sexuality).  That obviously can be a challenge but politics is the art of the possible.  Were Lindsay Lohan to run as a third-party candidate or an independent (between the two there is a legal distinction but it’s really of significance only in the state-based mechanisms which govern how a candidate gets to appear on the ballots; once there the electoral system treats them in the same way) the selection process would likely be more idiosyncratic but there would still be an interest in some way "balancing the ticket", a term with a definition which bounces around depending on the circumstances which dictate just what needs to be "balanced" (sex ("gender" now preferred), geography, ethnicity etc).      

A bucket full of veep.

In the US during the nineteenth century there was a joke about two brothers: "One ran off to sea and the other became vice-president; neither were ever heard of again."  That was of course an exaggeration but it reflected the general view of the office which has very few formal duties and can only ever be as powerful or influential as a president allows although the incumbent is "a heartbeat from the presidency".  John Nance Garner III (1868–1967, vice president of the US 1933-1941), a reasonable judge of these things, once told Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1963-1969) being VPOTUS was "not worth a bucket of warm piss" (which is polite company usually is sanitized as "warm spit").  For US vice-presidents, the slang veep (based on the phonetic V-P (pronounced vee-pee) is more commonly used.  Veep dates from 1949 and may have been influenced by the Jeep, the four wheel drive (4WD) light utility vehicle which had become famous for its service in World War II (1939-1945) with a number of allied militaries (the name said to be derived from an early army prefix GP (general purpose light vehicle)).  It was introduced to US English by Alben Barkley (1877-1956; VPOTUS 1949-1953), reputedly because his young grandchildren found “vice-president” difficult to pronounce.  In the press, the form became more popular when the 71-year-old VPOTUS took a wife more than thirty years younger; journalists decided she should be the veepess (pronounced vee-pee-ess).  Time magazine entered into the spirit of things, declaring the president should be Peep, the Secretary of State Steep, and the Secretary of Labor Sleep.  In the US, a number of VPOTUSs have become POTUS and some have worked out well although of late the record has not been encouraging, the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; VPOTUS 1961-1963, POTUS 1963-1968), Richard Nixon (1913-1994; VPOTUS 1953-1961, POTUS 1969-1974), George HW Bush (George XLI, 1924-2018; VPOTUS 1981-1989, POTUS 1989-1993) and Joe Biden (b 1942; VPOTUS 2008-2017, POTUS 2021-2025 (God willing)) all ending badly, respectively in despair, disgrace, defeat and decrepitude .

Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei (1939-2026; Supreme Leader of of the Islamic Republic of Iran 1989-2026) hands Masoud Pezeshkian (b 1954, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran since 2024) the presidential seals of Office, Tehran, 28 July 2024.  Ayatollah Khamenei seemed in 1989 an improbable choice as Supreme Leader because others were better credentialed but though cautious and uncharismatic, he was for almost four decades a great survivor in a troubled region but finally was killed by the sheer weight of US firepower and the effectiveness of its intelligence gathering (at least some of which is assumed to have come from within the Iranian regime).  What the death of the Supreme Leader reminded everyone was that bunkers have their limits so, just as recent events will have strengthened the ayatollahs' view that possession of an IND ( independent nuclear deterrent) is both wise and Godly, they'll also want deeper holes dug and more concrete poured.

In the literature of political science, it’s not uncommon to see comparisons between “presidential system” and “parliamentary system” and while that verbal shorthand is well understood within the profession, it’s more accurate to speak of “presidential systems” because the constitutional arrangements vary so much.  Essentially, there are (1) “ceremonial presidencies” in which a president serves as head of state and may nominally be the head of the military but all executive functions are handled by a chancellor, premier or prime-minister (or equivalent office) and (2) “executive presidencies” where the roles of head of state & head of government are combined.  However, those structural models are theoretical and around the world there are many nuances, both on paper and in practice.  While there are many similarities and overlaps in presidential systems, probably relatively few are identical in the constitutional sense.  Sometimes too, the constitutional arrangements are less important than the practice.  In the old Soviet Union, the office of president was sometimes filled by a relatively minor figure, despite it being, on paper, a position of great authority, something replicated in the Islamic Republic of Iran where ultimate authority sits in the hand of the Supreme Leader (both of whom have been ayatollahs).  Many systems include something of a hybrid aspect.  In France, the president appoints a prime-minister and ministers who may come from the National Assembly (the legislature) but, upon appointment, they leave the chamber.  A US president appoints their cabinet from anywhere eligible candidates can be found but creates no prime-minister.  In the “ceremonial presidencies” there is also a spectrum of authority and the extent of that can be influenced more by the personality and ambition of a president than the defined powers.  One president of Ireland described the significance of the office as one of “moral authority” rather than legal power.

Presidents like being president.

(Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; b 1952; president or prime minister of Russia since 1999).

Mr Putin was prime minister from 1999 to 2000, president from 2000 to 2008, and again prime minister from 2008 to 2012 before returning to the presidency.  The unusual career trajectory was a consequence of the Russian constitution forbidding the one person from serving as president for more than two consecutive terms.   Russia has an executive presidency, Mr Putin liked the job and his solution to (effectively) keeping it was to have Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (b 1965; president of Russia 2008-2012 & prime minister of Russia 2012-2020) “warm the chair” while Mr Putin re-assumed the premiership.  Generously, one could style this arrangement a duumvirate but political scientists could, whatever the constitutional niceties, discern no apparent difference in the governance of Russia regardless of the plaque on Mr Putin’s door.  Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) may have studied Mr Putin's tactics in presidential prolongment and wondered how they might be adapted to him obtaining a third (or fourth!) term, something which an amendment to the the US Constitution seems to render impossible but there are imaginative MAGA (Make America Great Again) operatives who claim there's a loophole which they're confident at least five judges on the USSC (US Supreme Court) would find constitutional.    

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b 1954; prime-minister or president of the Republic of Türkiye since 2003), pictured here meeting Lindsay Lohan, Presidential Palace, Ankara, Türkiye, 27 January 2017.  Palace sources say the president regards this meeting as the highlight of his time in office.

Mr Erdoğan has been president since 2014 having previously served as prime minister between 2003–2014.  As prime-minister under Turkey’s constitution with a non-executive president, he was head of government.  After becoming president, he expressed his disapproval for the system and his preference for Turkey’s adoption of an executive presidency.  On 15 July 2016, a coup d'état was staged by the military and, as coups d'état go (of which Türkiye has had a few), it was a placid and unambitious affair and the suspicion was expressed it was an event staged by the government itself although there’s little evidence to support this.  Mr Erdoğan blamed an exiled cleric, his former ally Fethullah Gülen (b 1941), for the coup attempt and promptly declared a state of emergency.  It was scheduled to last three months but the parliament extended its duration to cover a purge of critical journalists, political opponents, various malcontents and those in the military not overtly supportive of Türkiye.  In April 2017 Mr Erdoğan staged a national referendum (which the people duly approved), transforming the Republic of Türkiye into an executive presidency, the changes becoming effective after the presidential and parliamentary elections of June 2018.

Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934; Reichspräsident (1925-1934) of Germany 1925-1934) (right) accepts the appointment of Adolf Hitler (left) as Reichskanzler (Reich Chancellor), Berlin, Germany, 21 March 1933 (Potsdam Day).  Standing behind Hitler is Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945, Hitler's designated successor & Reichsmarschall 1940-1945).

Of course, if one has effectively “captured” the state, one can just decide to become president.  When in 1934 Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) was informed Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934; Reichspräsident (1925-1934) of the German Weimar Republic 1918-1933) was dying, unilaterally he had replaced the constitutional procedures covering such an eventuality, the “Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich” (issued as a cabinet decree) stipulating that upon the president’s death the office of Reichspräsident would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor under the title of Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor of the Reich).  Thus, the leadership of the party, government and state (and thus the military) were merged and placed exclusively in Hitler’s hands, a situation which prevailed until his death when the office of Reichspräsident was re-created (by a legal device no more complex than a brief document Hitler called his “political testament”) as an entity separate from the chancellorship (in a manner typical of the way things were done in the Third Reich, although in 1934 there ceased to be a Reichspräsident, maintained as administrative structures were (1) the Chancellery, (2) the Presidential Chancellery and (3) what became ultimately the Party Chancellery).  As a footnote, although in 1945 Hitler appointed as his replacement a separate president and chancellor, he made no mention of the "Führer" title but years later, Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) claimed Hitler had told him he expected his successors to continue to use the style. 

Mercedes-Benz 600 Landaulets a 1966 short roof (left) and 1970 long roof ("presidential", right),  

Between 1963-1981, Mercedes-Benz built 2190 600s (W100), 428 of which were the long wheelbase (LWB) Pullman versions, 59 were configured as Landaulets with a folding roof over the passenger compartment.  Built in both six and four-door versions, the Landaulets were available with either a short or long fabric roof, the latter known informally as the "presidential" although the factory never used the designation.  Twelve of the presidentials were built, a brace were bought by Kim Il-Sung (Kim I, 1912–1994; Great Leader of DPRK (North Korea) 1948-1994) and subsequently inherited (along with the rest of North Korea) by Kim Jong-Il (Kim II, 1941-2011; Dear Leader of DPRK (North Korea) 1994-2011) and Kim Jong-Un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK (North Korea) since 2011).

The 1970 Landaulet pictured was purchased by the Romanian government and used by comrade president Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989; general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party 1965-1989) until he and his wife were executed (by AK47) after a “people's tribunal” held a brief trial, the swiftness of which was aided by the court-appointed defense counsel who declared them both guilty of the genocide of which, among other crimes, they were charged.  Considering the fate of other fallen dictators, their end was less gruesome than might have been expected.  Comrade Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980; prime-minister or president of Yugoslavia 1944-1980) had a similar car (among other 600s) but he died undisturbed in his bed.  The blue SWB (short wheelbase) car to the rear is one of the few SWB models fitted with a divider between the front & rear compartments including hand-crafted timber writing tables and a refrigerated bar in the centre console.  It was delivered in 1977 to the Iranian diplomatic service and maintained for Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980; the last Shah of Iran 1941-1979).

Richard Nixon (1913-1994; POTUS 1969-1974) chatting with Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; POTUS 1963-1969).  His credibility destroyed by the Watergate scandal, Nixon is the only US president to resign from office.

The term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration but the name is derived from a break-in into Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) offices at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC on 17 June 1972.  A series of revelations made it clear the White House was involved in attempts cover up Nixon’s knowledge of this and other illegal activities.  He continued to insist he had no prior knowledge of the burglary, did not break any laws, and did not learn of the cover-up until early 1973.  Also revealed was the existence of previously secret audio tapes, recorded in the White House by Nixon himself.  The legal battle over the tapes continued through early 1974, and in April Nixon announced the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of White House conversations between him and his aides. The House Judiciary Committee opened impeachment hearings and these culminated in votes for impeachment.  By July, the US Supreme Court had ruled unanimously that the full tapes, not just selected transcripts, must be released.  One of the tapes, recorded soon after the break-in, demonstrated that Nixon had been told of the White House connection to the Watergate burglaries soon after they took place, and had approved plans to thwart the investigation.   It became known as the "Smoking Gun Tape".  With the loss of political support and the near-certainty that he would be impeached and removed, was “tapped on the shoulder” by a group of Republicans from both houses of Congress, lead by crazy old Barry Goldwater (1909–1998).  Nixon resigned the presidency on 8 August 1974.

Mr Nixon assured the country he was "not a crook" although in that he was speaking of matters unrelated to the Watergate scandal.

One thing even his most committed enemies (and there were many) conceded of Nixon was his extraordinary tenacity and Nixon fought hard to remain president and the most dramatically Shakespearian act came in what came to be called the Saturday Night Massacre, the term coined to describe the events of 20 October 1973 when Nixon ordered the sacking of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox (1912-2004), then investigating the Watergate scandal.  In addition to Cox, that evening saw also the departure of Attorney General Elliot Richardson (1920-1999) and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus (1932-2019).  Richardson had appointed Cox in May, fulfilling an undertaking to the House Judiciary Committee that a special prosecutor would investigate the events surrounding the break-in of the DNC’s offices at the Watergate Hotel.  The appointment was made under the ex-officio authority of the attorney general who could remove the special prosecutor only for extraordinary and reprehensible conduct.  Cox soon issued a demand that Nixon hand over copies of taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office; the president refused to comply and by Friday, a stalemate existed between White House and Department of Justice and all Washington assumed there would be a break in the legal maneuvering while the town closed-down for the weekend.

Before the massacre.  Attorney-General Elliot Richardson, President Richard Nixon and FBI Director-Designate Clarence Kelly (1911-1997), The White House, 1973.

However, on Saturday, Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Cox.  Richardson refused and resigned in protest. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox.  Ruckelshaus also refused and resigned.  Nixon then ordered Solicitor General Robert Bork (1927-2012), as acting head of the Justice Department, to fire Cox; while both Richardson and Ruckelshaus had given personal assurances to congressional committees they would not interfere, Bork had not.  Brought to the White House in a black Cadillac limousine and sworn in as acting attorney-general, Bork wrote the letter firing Cox; thus ended the Saturday Night Massacre.  Perhaps the most memorable coda to the affair was Richardson’s memorable post-resignation address to staff at the Department of Justice, delivered the Monday morning following the “massacre”.  Richardson had often been spoken of as a potential Republican nominee for the presidency and some nineteen years later, he would tell the Washington Post: “If I had any demagogic impulse... there was a crowd... but I deliberately throttled back.” His former employees responded with “an enthusiastic and sustained ovation.”  Within a week of the Saturday Night Massacre, resolutions of impeachment against the president were introduced in Congress although the House Judiciary Committee did not approve its first article of impeachment until 27 July the following year when it charged Nixon with obstruction of justice.  Mr Nixon resigned less than two weeks later, on 8 August 1974, leaving the White House the next day.

Lyndon Johnson (left) & Sam Rayburn (1882-1961, right), Washington DC, 1954.

Nixon’s predecessor also liked being president and few have assumed the office in circumstances more politically propitious, even if it was something made possible by the assassination of John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963).  Johnson had for over two decades worked to achieve control of the Senate and at the peak of the success of the Johnson-Rayburn congressional era the Democrats held majorities of 64-36 in the Senate and 263-174 in the House of Representatives.  In the 1964 presidential election (facing Barry Goldwater), Johnson won a crushing victory, securing over 60% of the popular vote and taking every state except Goldwater’s home state of Arizona and a handful south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  Relatively uninterested in foreign policy, Johnson had a domestic agenda more ambitious than anything seen since the US Civil War (1861-1865) a century before and what he achieved was far-reaching and widely appreciated for its implications only decades after his death but it was the US involvement in the war in Vietnam which consumed his presidency, compelling him dramatically to announce in April 1968 “…I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”  As a message, it was strikingly similar to that in July 2024 delivered by Joe Biden (b 1942; US president 2021-2025), something nobody seemed to think a mere coincidence.  Also compelling are similarities between the two, both spending a political lifetime plotting and scheming to become president, having no success until curious circumstances delivered them the prize with which genuinely they achieved much but were forced to watch their dream of re-election slip from their grasp.

Nicolás Maduro (b 1962; President of Venezuela since 2013, left) and Hugo Chávez (1954-2013; President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 1999-2013 (except during a few local difficulties in 2002, right)).

Donald Trump of course liked being president and the events of 6 January (the so-called "capitol riot") are regarded by many (though clearly not a majority of US Supreme Court judges) as an attempted (if amateurish) insurrection, something Mr Trump denies encouraging.  To the south, in Venezuela, Mr Maduro also really likes being president and is from the comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) school of democracy.  Although the statement often attributed to comrade Stalin: “It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes” probably was apocryphal, it encapsulated his psephological model and was an inspiration for figures such as Saddam Hussein (1937–2006; president of Iraq 1979-2003) and Kim Jong-Un.  Accordingly, in July 2024 there was some scepticism when the National Electoral Council (the NEC, controlled by Mr Maduro’s political party) announced the president had won the 2024 presidential election with 51.2% of the vote, despite the country being in a sustained economic crisis during which it had suffered a rate of hyper-inflation at its peak so high the economists stopped calculation once it hit a million percent and seen more emigration than any country in South or Central America not actually in a state of declared war.

Friends in high places: Mr Maduro with Xi Jinping (b 1953; general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2012).

For a country which possesses the world’s largest known reserves of crude oil, the economic collapse has been a remarkable achievement.  Although Venezuela's crude oil is "heavy-sour" rather than the "light-sweet" most refiners are set-up to handle, the US has a number of refineries on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico (known also as the Gulf of America) dedicated to refining heavy-sour into the diesel and other "heavy" fuels the stuff suits.  Mr Maduro came to office after the death of Hugo Chávez, a genuinely charismatic figure who took advantage of a sustained high oil price to fund social programmes which benefited the poor (of which his country had a scandalous number) who, unsurprisingly voted for him; Mr Chávez won his elections fair and square.  The decrease in oil revenue triggered a chain of events which meant Mr Maduro hasn’t enjoyed the same advantages and some claim his victories in the 2013 & 2018 elections were anything but fair & square although the numbers were so murky it was hard to be definitive.  Details of the 2024 results however are not so much murky as missing and although the NEC provided aggregate numbers (in summary form), only some 30% of the “tally sheets” (with the booth voting details) were published.  Interestingly, the (admittedly historically unreliable) public opinion polls suggested Mr Maduro might secure 30-35% of the vote and the conspiracy theorists (on this occasion probably on sound ground) are suggesting the tally sheets made public might have been selected with “some care”.

Friends in high places: Mr Maduro with Mr Putin.

In the way these things are done, the regime is sustained by being able to count on the reliability of the security forces and the conventional wisdom in political science is this can be maintained as long as (1) the members continued to be paid and (2) the percentage of the population prepared to take to the streets in violent revolt doesn’t reach and remain at a sustained critical mass (between 3-9% depending on the mechanics of the country).  So the streets are being watched with great interest but already Mr Maduro has received congratulations from the leaders of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the DPRK; North Korea), Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, and Nicaragua and Russia so there’s that.  Mr Maduro runs the country on a basis not dissimilar to being the coordinator of a number of "crime families" and on 2 August the US State Department announced they were recognizing the leader of the opposition as the "legitimate winner" of the election and thus president of the Bolivarian Republic; gestures like this have previously been extended but the regime's grip on power was strong enough to resist.  The opposition numbers are now greater and generous will be the resources devoted to ensuring a critical mass of protesters isn't achieved and Caracas doesn't see its own "capital riot".  For as long as the security forces remain willing and able to retain control of the streets and ensure the population isn't deprived of food for three days (another trigger point for revolution established by political scientists), Mr Maduro should be able to keep the job he so obviously enjoys.

Friends in high places: Mr Maduro with Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the pair watched over by the official portrait of the Islamic Republic’s ever-unsmiling founder, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.  Note Supreme Leader's pairing of sandals with socks; usually that's a crime against fashion but when one is Supreme Leader, one sets the rules.

Mr Maduro’s longer term future remains clouded but, based on similar historic examples, he’ll cling to office until deposed or murdered (either by this opponents or his “friends”).  Running a country on the same basis used by the head of a crime family to administer their enterprise has in some cases been maintained for decades but each example must be assessed on its own dynamics and although he has a solid security infrastructure to maintain repression (staffed in its upper echelons by “technical advisors” provided by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and the Kremlin with many of its “ground level” operatives (ie thugs) from Cuba), the global oil-glut has depressed prices and Mr Maduro is now increasingly reliant on “taking a percentage” of the revenue gained from the narcotics trade into the US.  He’s in a difficult position in that he had little popular support and thus for some time has survived only as a sort of “front” while real power is held by an alliance between the military and the various trans-national criminal operations, the profits divided in the way these things are done.  It means his country is being looted, assets stolen and revenue "siphoned-off", a business model which ultimately is doomed.  Frankly, his future prospects are not good and if he can “cut a deal” and secure an offer of safe & agreeable exile, he should take as many millions as he can grab and run.

1955 Studebaker President Speedster.  The West of the 1950s sometimes is described as a period of "dull conformity" and while in some aspects there's truth in that, as well as the occasionally bizarre styling motifs, there was a sense of exuberance in the two (and sometimes three) tone color schemes the US industry offered during those years.  

Studebaker used the President name (they also offered a "Dictator" until events in 1930s Europe made that a harder sell) for their most expensive models, the first three generations a range of sedans, coupes and roadsters produced between 1926-1942.  The name was revived in 1955 and used until 1958, the range this time encompassing two and four-door sedans & station wagons and two-door coupes and hardtops.  The last of the Packards (the much derided, so-called "Packardbakers" which had a brief, unsuccessful run between 1957-1958) was based on the Studebaker President Speedster, the most admired of the range.

Swastika

Swastika (pronounced swos-ti-kuh (Germanic) or swas-ti-kuh (English-speaking world)).

(1) A figure used as a symbol or an ornament in the Old World and in America since prehistoric times, consisting of a cross with arms of equal length, each arm having a continuation at right angles.

(2) The official emblem of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (The NSDAP, the National Socialist German Workers' Party better known as the Nazi Party (1920-1945)) and (after 1935) the German state (Third Reich).

1850–1855: From the Sanskrit स्वस्तिक (svastika), from svasti (prosperity), the construct being सु- (su-) (good, well (cognate with Greek eu-) + अस्ति (asti) (that being as- (be) + -ti- (the abstract noun suffix)) + क (ka) (the diminutive suffix), hence "little thing associated with well-being", best understood in modern use as “a lucky charm".  It was first attested in English in 1871, a Sanskritism which replaced the Grecian gammadion.  After adoption in the early 1920s by the German National Socialist Workers’ Party (the Nazis), swastika was increasingly used to refer to the visually similar hooked cross which in German was the Hakenkreuz (literally "hook-cross"), English use first noted in 1932.  The su- element is from the primitive Indo-European (e)su- (good), a suffixed form of the root es- ("to be”); the asti element is from the same root.  It was known in Byzantium as the gammadion and in medieval heraldry as the cross cramponnee, Thor's hammer, and (although this is contested), the fylfot, a similar shape though most usually rendered in mirror image to the swastika.  Swastika is a noun (the rare adjective swastikaed is non-standard); the noun plural is swastikas.

Crate label advertising, Swastika brand fruit, L.V.W. Brown Estate, Riverside, California, 1930s.

For thousands of years, the swastika was used by almost every culture as a symbol of good fortune before, in the Western world, becoming synonymous the Nazis and thus a byword for racism and barbarism.  Translated literally as "well-being" in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit and for millennia shared between Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, it was the positive connotations associated with the shape, as well as its pleasing, adaptive geometry which inspired the early Western travelers visiting Asia to bring it home, examples found in the archaeological record of the Ancient Greeks, Celts, and Anglo-Saxons, some of the oldest examples in eastern Europe, stretching from the Baltic to the Balkans.  In the 1800s it became a popular shape among jewelry designers and by the turn of the twentieth century there was quite a fad for it among graphic designers who applied it from everything from tiled floors, fabrics, architectural motifs and advertising.  Carlsberg and Coca-Cola both used it on their bottles and Swastika was the title of the magazine of the Girls' Club of America, the young ladies being awarded swastika badges to wear as a prize for selling copies.  In one especially interesting example of timing and placement, some war planes of both the Aeronautical Division of the US Signal Corps (predecessor of USSAF & USAF) and the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) were adorned with swastikas, beginning in the 1920s.  Use declined, obviously, during the 1930s but there’s evidence the symbol was used as late as 1939.  The Finnish Air Force adopted it in 1918, discretely painting over the last examples in 1945 but the symbol continues to be used by some squadrons and on decorations.

Dirty laundry: Darty Laundry electric delivery van, rendered by Raidió Teilifís Éireann, (RTE, Radio & Television of Ireland, the Irish public service broadcaster) in “Swastika Laundry” livery for the television series Caught in a Free State (1983) a four-part drama about German spies in neutral Ireland during World War II (1939-1945), an event known in Ireland as “The Emergency”.  As late as the 1970s there were at least 600 electric delivery vehicles on the streets of Dublin alone, their numbers declining as private ownership of cars, washing machines, refrigerators and such increased.  In the UK, when milk was still every day delivered to houses, some 85% of deliveries were made by electric vehicles.

Anwar Sadat (1918–1981; president of Egypt 1970-1981, left) and Israeli foreign minister (and former IDF (Israeli Defence Force) general) Moshe Dayan (1915-1981, right), King David Hotel, Jerusalem, 19 November 1977.

It was the first visit to Israel by an Egyptian president and although the visit was successful, the “swastika” tie he on one occasion wore attracted comment.  During the visit he also chose neckwear in stripes and polka-dots so there were mixed messages but in Washington DC, on 26 March 1979, some 16 months after the visit and following the 1978 Camp David Accords, the Egypt–Israel treaty was signed, providing for mutual recognition and a cessation of the state of war that had existed since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.  Maybe, sometimes a tie is just a tie.

Playing cards, New, York, 1920s.

The Nazi’s use of the swastika is another example of the quasi-scientific links they claimed existed between Germans and ancient civilizations.  Nineteenth century German scholars translating old Indian texts had notice the structural similarities between their language and Sanskrit; their conclusions were equivocal but the some among the Nazis concluded this was proof of a shared ancestry with a race of white warriors they called Aryans.  Even at the time, the linguists and anthropologists were appalled at the misappropriation of their work; their findings had been about the structure of language and nothing more.  The Nazis however grasped at straws wherever they fell.  Single swastikas began to appear in the Neolithic Vinca culture across south-eastern Europe around some 7,000 years ago and during the Bronze Age were widespread across the continent but, when clay pots embossed with swastikas dating from circa 2000 BC were looted after the occupation of Kiev in WWII and were exhibited in Berlin as evidence of a shared Aryan ancestry.  Displays of the swastika have been banned in Germany since the end of the war but attempts to extend the ban EU-wide have never succeeded.

A K-R-I-T bus in New York City, taking a jury to luncheon, October 1912.  The matter on which the jury sat was a police corruption trial, the murder of Herman Rosenthal (1874–1912) who ran several small casinos which were subject to raids by the police who, in exchange for “protection money” (claimed to be 20% of the day’s take) allowed them illegally to operate, the money spread among police, Tammany Hall (headquarters of the Democratic Party machine) and some corrupt politicians (in NYC at the time, something of a tautology),  New York Police Department (NYPD) Lieutenant Charles Becker (1870–1915) and four members of the Lenox Avenue Gang ultimately were convicted of murder and “got the chair”, the executions carried out in 1915 in Sing Sing Prison’s death chamber.

US Army Air Corps Boeing P12 (F4B) (1929-1942), circa 1964 (left) and the flying jacket of a US Army observer, 45th Infantry Division, circa 1939 (right).  Obviously the swastika livery didn't endure but it wasn't the end of the symbol appearing on US and British warplanes, small versions of the symbol often stencilled onto the fuselage to indicate the count of a pilot's "kills".

Finnish Air Force Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 fighters, Latva Airfield, East Karelia, 9 September, 1943.

The Finnish Air Force introduced the blue swastika in 1918; it was known as the hakaristi, the construct being haka (hook) +‎ risti (cross).  The Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 was a French fighter, based on an airframe which first flew in 1935 and it was only marginally improved by 1938 when the pre-production models first flew.  Like some other aircraft in what was a transitional period, the construction was a mix of old and new, the rear steel-tube frame fabric-covered in the conventional manner but the remainder had a skin of plymax, (a plywood veneer bonded to light alloy).  Under-powered and lacking firepower, it was hardly state of the art but was valuable export for the French industry, two sent to Switzerland to be used as templates for local production and 30 to Turkey while 160 had been sold to Poland but the timing was unfortunate because they were in the process of delivery when the German invasion began in 1939.  Just before the fall of France, 30 had been dispatched to Finland and the Germans would later augment this with a further batch of 57 confiscated from the Armée de l-Air (the French Air Force), distributing others to Croatia and Italy.  As the combat record in the Battle of France suggests (400 losses for 175 kills), the M.S.406 was outclassed by more capable German designs and in the conflicts with the Soviet Union (1939-1940 & 1941-1944) Finnish pilots found then agile but under-powered as well as unreliable as a gun platform, instability noted when firing and the weapons of dubious reliability.  The solution for the lack of power was typical of the improvisations often adopted during war-time: re-fitting the sturdy airframe with the more powerful Soviet Klimov M-105 or M-103 engines, both in plentiful supply from crashed enemy aircraft and stocks captured by the Germans during the early successes in the invasion of Russia in 1941.  A typical Soviet rip-off, the Klimovs were improved versions of the Hispano-Suzia 12Y-31 V12 used in the M.S.406 and were thus able to be re-purposed with relatively little effort.  The change transformed the Finnish fighters, giving them a performance second only to the Messerschmitt BF-109s also in the fleet.

Years before there was a Nazi Party, the trademark of the short-lived (1909-1916), Detroit-based motor car company K-R-I-T (derived from Kenneth Crittenden (1889-1972) who provided financial backing and contributed to the design) was the swastika.  K-R-I-T (the name was simplified to Krit after 1912) was one of some 2000 concerns which entered the US motor industry during the first two decades of the twentieth century but the ancient symbol of good fortune, chosen “to ensure favor of auspicious gods” failed the export-dependent company and World War I (1914-1918) proved the final nail in the coffin.  That Mr Crittenden was born in the same year as Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) is one of history's many coincidences and he went on to a long career in the industry, in 1928 joining Chrysler where he remained until his retirement in the mid-1960s.

1912 K-R-I-T Model A Roadster.  From the automotive “brass era”, its fittings included a firewall mounted Solar acetylene spotlight, twin Solar acetylene headlight, E&J kerosene sidelights, tufted black leather upholstery, wood spoke wheels with 30 x 3½ inch tires and a cylindrical bolster fuel tank.

Krit’s business model was one which for more than a century has lured major manufacturers, independents and start-ups when came and went: “the modestly priced, full-featured automobile”.  Such a product obviously has huge market appeal and thus the possibility of achieving compelling economies of scale but it also attracts players so the sector tends to become crowded, accounting for a hundred-odd years of industrial churn.  Depending on the configuration, the K-R-I-T Model A was advertised between US$800-1000, just a little more expensive than Henry Ford’s (1863-1947) Model T (1908-1927) but offered more power from an engine almost identical in specification (177 cubic inch, L-head, in-line four-cylinder) and a three-speed sliding gear transmission, easier to use and affording greater flexibility than the Ford’s two-speed planetary gearbox.  Unfortunately for Krit, demand in its most receptive and lucrative domestic market fell precipitously after widespread crop-failure in the US west in 1913 and the outbreak of war in Europe some months later killed demand there; Europe had absorbed more than 80% of of the company’s export business.  Production ceased in 1915 and after for some month trying. And failing, to raise new capital, the concern was dissolved.

The K-R-I-T badge (1908, left) and The Nazi's Goldenes Parteiabzeichen (Golden Party Badge (1933, right).

That the detailing in some of Krit's swastika emblems was so similar to that adopted by the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (The NSDAP, the National Socialist German Workers' Party better known as the Nazi Party (1920-1945)) is not surprising because the color combinations and aspect ratios which most appeal to one graphic artist are likely to be judged as pleasing by another.  Adolf Hitler claimed he personally designed the escutcheon his movement would make infamous and while he told many lies and there are many myths about his role in the party’s early days, his claim is thought to be true and throughout his political career, even in the depths of war when thing were bad, he never ceased sketching and designing; he was a competent (if uninspired) artist (although the human form eluded him) and likely would have be a proficient architect.  Nor did Hitler claim his conceptual notions were original, admitting the combination of red, white and black was something he “stole” from the posters of his enemies, the German communists (whose propagandists seem to have settled on the scheme because it was used for the flag of the German Empire (the so-called “Second Reich” (1871-1918).  Especially among the right-wing, the symbol had been much used in the German Empire.

Grounds of the Mercedes-Benz factory decorated in honor of a visit to Stuttgart by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945), the display visible from his aircraft (1936, top left), a Mercedes-Benz showroom in Munich, Lenbachplaz (1935, top right) and 1938 Mercedes-Benz W125 Rekordwagen (bottom).  Although, tucked away in a corner of the corporate website there is a single page which contains a rather perfunctory acknowledgement of company’s complicity in some of the crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime between 1933-1939 there’s little attempt to discuss the matter, an understandable reticence and quite a gap in the otherwise extensively documented history which dates back to 1886 with the debut of what is claimed to be the world’s “first automobile”.  Brand-management can be as much about what is left unsaid or hidden as what is projected. 

When used in events other straight-line speed record attempts (ie where corners needed to be negotiated) the streamlined version of the W125 Formel-Rennwagen (race car built in accord with defined rules) didn’t use the spats (fender-skirts) covering the wheels.  It was used thus on Berlin’s high-speed Avusrennen with its two, uniquely long straights and differed from the conventional W125 in that it was powered by V12 engine rather than the usual big-bore straight-eight, the lower hood (bonnet) line further reducing drag.  Fitted with the spats, W125 Rekordwagen (record car) was used in 1938 to achieve a speed of 432.7 km/h (269 mph) over the flying kilometre, then the fastest timed speed achieved on a public road and a record which stood until 2017.  It’s now on display in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, although, the swastika with which it was once adorned has been removed from the aluminum skin (displays of the swastika banned in Germany except as authorized).

German U-boat (submarine) U-576 (left) flying the Kriegsmarine’s (German navy) War Ensign (1935-1945).

U-Boat U-576 was sunk on 15 July 1942, 30 miles (48 km) off Cape Hatteras, Hatteras Island, North Carolina.  The Kriegsmarine’s (German navy) War Ensign, flown from all combat vessels between 1935-1945, was raised when submarines were entering or leaving port but otherwise rarely displayed.  The swastika was never painted on the hulls, a point of some legal consequence in the first Nuremberg trial (1945-1946, heard before an IMT (International Military Tribunal) to try the surviving leading Nazis) when evidence was presented in the matter of the steam trawler Noreen Mary, sunk by gunfire from U-247 about 20 miles (32 km) west of Cape Wrath on the north Coast of Scotland.  The witness provided sworn testimony he saw a swastika painted on the submarine’s conning tower but it was proved no U-Boat had ever been so decorated and, combined with other evidence, this weakened the prosecution case against Großadmiral Karl Dönitz (1891–1980; Supreme Commander of the Kriegsmarine 1943-1945).

Hitler Youth & BDM members on camp together, circa 1937.

The Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls) was the girls' wing of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth), the Nazi Party's youth movement (membership of which, like much in the Third Reich, was close to obligatory), intended to train boys to be ready to become good soldiers and prepare girls for their traditional role of motherhood; it was abbreviated as BDM.  Perhaps unfortunately, some mixed activities such as the girls and boys going on camps together resulted in much practical preparation for motherhood, revelations of this promiscuity leading Germans to conclude BDM might better be understood as the Bund Deutscher Matratzen (League of German Mattresses).

Bromide press print (circa 1911) of portrait by unknown photographer of Olave St Clair Baden-Powell (née Soames), Lady Baden-Powell (1889-1977), Leader of the world Girl Guide movement and wife of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts movement, National Portrait Gallery, London (left), the Edmonton Swastikas ice hockey team, 1916 (centre), and US actress Clara Bow (1905–1965) adorned in swastikas to ward off the bad luck of Friday the 13^th, photo-shoot for “Ancient Cross Defies Jinx Day” published on page 27 of the Los Angeles Times, 13 April 1928 (right).

Although in the West now most associated with the BDM, before the evilness of the Nazis tainted the association, girls had been wearing swastikas for centuries, sometimes because of the association with good fortune and sometimes because it was just another bolt shape, the distinctiveness of which made it adaptable to fashion.  As well as the Edmonton operation, there were two other Canadian ice hockey teams, the Fernie Swastikas out of Fernie, British Columbia and the Windsor Swastikas of Windsor, Nova Scotia.  In Nazi Germany, the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides movements associated with Lord & Lady Baden-Powell were absorbed respectively into the HJ & BDM and although many of the activities were carried over (tying knots, outdoor survival skills, pitching tents and all that), the political nature of the indoctrination was different.  Tellingly, although the Nazis had been marching under the swastika since 1920 and were already in Germany & Austria a byword for intolerance and violence, the LA Times in April 1928 made not one mention of events in Europe and it’s doubtful the movement, then still obscure in the US and well-known only to the few interested in international events, much registered in public consciousness.  Ms Bow seems never to have been interested in the politics of the right or left but she did in 1933 visit Germany on her honeymoon and film buff Hitler (like many, a Clara Bow fan) presented her a copy of his autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf (My Struggle, 1925); it’s thought like most, Ms Bow probably didn’t trouble to read the work.  The swastika did not ward off her bad luck and she later went mad (suffering what would now be called “mental health issues”).

Mr Ye and Ms Censori, annual Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, 2 February 2025.  Most intriguing has been the suggestion Ms Censori is being paid by Mr Ye on a "per outfit" basis and is thus a kind of "walking installation".  That would make it a very "modern" marriage and one of which not all would approve but there have been relationships (artistic and otherwise) based on more dubious arrangements.

In recent years, the US rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, hip hop identity & fashion designer Ye, formerly known as Kanye West (b 1977) has (in a sense) “re-created” Australian architect & model Bianca Censori (b 1995) as a series of installations (which probably isn’t quite the right word but on the model of the art business, it’s close); the two may (at least in some jurisdictions) be married, the reports are contradictory.  What Mr Ye has done is to create photo opportunities using Ms Censori as a lure by having her dress (again that may not be quite the right word) in a style likely to attract photographers, vloggers, magazine editors and other content aggregators.  As an installation there to be photographed, the well-qualified Ms Censori certainly draws the lens and has taken the “nude dress” trend of the last decade-odd almost to its logical conclusion and whether the concept can be taken further than her recent appearance at the 2025 Grammy Awards has been debated; it certainly wouldn’t demand much fabric.  Although the coverage (in the media, not of Ms Censori’s skin) has been extensive, whether Mr Ye is much benefiting isn’t clear because the focus is, predictably, very much on the installation rather than the artist and the only mention he seems to gain is being condemned as exploitative or worse.  All the attention devoted to Ms Censori may also have engendered in him what Gareth Evans (b 1944; Australian Labor Party (ALP) senator or MP 1978-1999, sometime attorney-general & foreign minister) called RDS (relevance deprivation syndrome) because his latest on-line project is selling “swastika T-shirts” at US$20; it's a niche market but, given recent events, he may regard it as a growing one and the reaction to his venture was certainly focused on him.  The product code for the T-shirts was "HH01" and those who recall his comment: “There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler" in a December 2022 podcast with the since bankrupted host Alex Jones (1974) probably deconstructed the code to mean “Heil Hitler” although to remove any doubt he also tweeted: “I love Hitler” and “I'm a Nazi”.  Swastika T-shirts must have been too much for Shopify which took down the page, issuing a statement saying Mr Ye had "violated" the company's terms.  It was an example of the dangers inherent in having a site administered by AI (artificial intelligence) with humans checking the content only in reaction to complaints.  The AI will improve but whether Mr Ye has thought better of offering the range remains to be seen, yeezy.com now displaying only the stylized message YEEZY STORES COMING SOON♡.

The artist formerly known as Kanye West in shirt, Los Angeles, February 2025.  As a device to attract photographers and generate an ongoing presence in print and on-line, a well-placed swastika remains potent.

In architecture and design, the swastika has been used for thousands of years.  Top row: Lampposts, Glendale, California, USA 1924-1927 (left), the unexpected juxtaposition of a swastika atop a Jewish Star of David (centre) and Coronado Naval Base, San Diego, California (not the “Albert Speer Memorial Retirement Home” as it has been tagged on the internet), (right).  Bottom row: Skillman Branch Library (1931), Detroit, Michigan, USA (left), nineteenth century floor in Roman Catholic church, Tamaulipas, Mexico (centre) and a floor mosaic with geometrical designs and swastikas, laid in the second or third century AD, Tarraco (ancient name of the city of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain), Archaeological Museum of Tarragon, Spain, (right).

The "Swasticar"

Elon Musk at the 2025 US Presidential Inauguration, Washington DC, January 2025.

So moved by the moment when on stage at the inauguration ceremony marking the beginning of Donald Trump’s (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) second coming (as the MAGA devotes seem to regard it) was tech titan Elon Musk FRS (b 1971) that to express to the adoring crowd “My heart goes to you”, spontaneously he gave a gesture which many noted was similar to the many “Sieg Heil!” (Hail Victory!) moments made infamous by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) in Nazi Germany (1933-1945).  To reinforce his point, Mr Musk then turned to the crowd behind and repeated the gesture.  He did first place his right hand over his heart (as per the US Pledge of Allegiance's current protocol) but arm was raised ("palm-down" (as used by the Nazis)) rather than "palm-up" (the pre-1942 US protocol) although probably no intent should be inferred from this because the raised palm procedure hadn't be in use for almost two generations before Mr Musk was born. 

The reaction was swift and widespread.  Predictably, memes appeared but there was also direct action, Tesla dealerships picketed and the cars vandalized, sometimes by being daubed with swastikas, sometimes by being torched, a disturbing trend given they’re fitted with lithium-ion batteries which, when they burn, burn for hours.  The shift in the political association attached to the flagship of electric vehicles was remarkable.  Once it had been V8-powered pick-up owners south of Mason-Dixon Line who had despised the things, their suspicion being Teslas encapsulated much that was a threat to the American way of life: homosexuality, New York, California, trans-gender rights, environmentalism, Freemasonry and the Democratic Party; suddenly, it was the Tesla-driving (or aspiring) liberals embarrassed (or fearful) to be associated with the brand, some resorting to gluing on Honda or Hyundai badges to deter the attacks.

One of the most striking was an image by Portuguese graphic artist Ves Vaz (b 1986) which was based on the famous photograph of “Tank man” standing in front of PLA (People's Liberation Army) tanks sent in June 1989 by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to “deal with” crowds of protesters gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.  The photograph was taken by AP (associated Press) photographer Jeff Widener (b 1956) who initially was displeased at “tank Man” appearing in frame for what looked like a perfectly composed shot.  As things turned out, it became one of the best known images of the century and one often re-published when the Tiananmen Square Massacre (the “June Fourth Incident according to the CCP) is discussed.  For cartoonists and artists like Ves Vaz the Cybertruck is a gift because the shape is so distinctive instantly it’s recognizable as a Tesla, even by those unable to tell a Ferrari from a F-150.  Of course, that also means it’s pointless to stick on a Toyota badge which can make more anonymous looking Teslas “blend in”, to some degree protecting them from roving anti-MAGA vandals.

Soon, on London bus shelters there appeared posters dubbing Teslas “Swasticars” and urging people not to buy them, the political messaging including references to white supremacy, autocracy and allusions to the Third Reich.  Swastikas seem not to have appeared, presumable to avoid possible legal challenges although even without them, the meaning was lost on few.

Digital projection on Tesla Gigafactory, Berlin, Germany.

Other forms of direct action included the Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin having a depiction of Mr Musk’s “My heart goes to you” moment projected onto the façade with a “Heil” prefixed to the illumined “Tesla” although no swastika was added, the symbol banned in Germany for all but a few special purposes.  Interestingly, Tesla was there already the subject of controversy on environmental and social grounds, having a year earlier suffered an arson attack but the opposition has swelled after Mr Musk association with the second Trump administration has fuelled a growing perception of an alignment with the far-right.  Although computers would have made the stunt easier, this would have taken much preparation and some physical testing.

Hailing cab with dog on leash: Gloria Walker (b 1937), PotM (Playmate of the Month), Playboy magazine, June 1956; photograph by Herman Leonard (1923-2010).  Whether waving to someone or hailing a cab, the raised arm is one of humanity's more common gestures, meaning jurisdictions banning the act must base prosecutions on context and intent rather than merely the act. 

2024 Tesla Cybertruck AWD Foundation Series (left) and the suspect cant rail.  The term “cant rail” came from architecture and railway engineering and referred to an angled or sloped surface.  Cant rails (also often seen in fence construction) are those parts which are tilted or positioned at an angle rather than being strictly vertical or horizontal.  In automobile design specifically, a cant rail is the (sometimes structural and sometimes cosmetic) section running along the top edge of the side windows, connecting the A-pillar to the B-  C- or D-pillar; visually, it defines the roofline and can contribute to strength.  The early automobiles picked up the name from the reinforced horizontal member supporting the upper structure on railway carriages & horse-drawn carriages because the early techniques of construction were essentially the same.

To add to Tesla’s woes, in March 2025 came the news the company’s Cybertruck was subject to a global recall, needed to rectify a fault in which large stainless steel body panels can unexpectedly detach and (if the vehicle is in motion) “fly off”.  The recall notice issued by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) revealed the affected Cybertrucks were the 46,096 built between November 2023 & February 2025 and the issue was the adhesive used: “The Cybertruck is equipped with a cosmetic applique along the exterior of the vehicle, known as the cant rail, which is an assembly comprised of an electro-coated steel stamping joined to a stainless steel panel with structural adhesive. The cant rail assembly is affixed to the vehicle with fasteners. On affected vehicles, the cant rail stainless steel panel may delaminate at the adhesive joint, which may cause the panel to separate from the vehicle.”  According to a Tesla communiqué, the adhesive was “susceptible to environmental embrittlement” which pleased word nerds; although “embrittlement” is rare, it’s not a recent tech industry neologism and is seen most commonly as “hydrogen embrittlement” (HE), known also as “hydrogen-assisted cracking” (HAC) or “hydrogen-induced cracking: Hydrogen embrittlement (HE), also known as hydrogen-assisted cracking or hydrogen-induced cracking” (HIC), all of which describe the absorption of hydrogen into a metal, and subsequent weakening, as part of a pickling process.

1945 Heinkel He 162 Salamander (Volksjäger) National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC.

Recalls and “fix bulletins” from Tesla have not been uncommon but most have involved the need to patch software and these have been handled remotely.  The “flying panels” will however require a visit to a Tesla Service Center.  The company has thus far acknowledged 151 warranty claims related to the failed glue but said it was “not aware of any collisions, fatalities, or injuries.”  Coincidently, it was problems with an adhesive which afflicted the Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger (People's Fighter), a jet-powered fighter aircraft the Luftwaffe late in World War II (1939-1945) planned to be flown by aviators from the Hitlerjugend (HJ, the Hitler Youth) who had the benefit of a few hours training flying gliders.  For those intrepid youth, going from that to a jet-fighter was about as ill-advised as it sounds but by 1945 the Germany’s military position was dire and in many fields the bottom of the barrel was being scraped.  Heinkel used Salamander as the project name for the wing program and it’s that which military historians came to prefer despite the whole project being called Spatz (Sparrow), while the Air Ministry’s preferred Volksjäger never caught on.  With aviation-standard metals in short supply, the He 162 was built substantially from wood with only critical components such as the fuselage skin and wing edges made from aluminium.  This made it not only cheap to produce but also a genuinely “disposable” aircraft with damaged units intended to be discarded and replaced.  Remarkably, the first prototype flew in December 1944 only 38 days after the factory received the blueprints but while the early tests proved it was a capable (if sometimes tricky to handle because of the unusual layout) short-range interceptor, after only days structural failures in flight began to occur, leading to fatalities.  The issue was traced to environmental embrittlement, an acid in the adhesive used to bond the wood panels causing delamination of the layers, the subsequent fragmentation meaning vital parts would “fly off” compromising structural integrity.  Between February-May 1945, some 120 of the 1000-odd air-fames were delivered to Luftwaffe units but few ever saw combat and losses (most from accidents or structural failures) exceeded the small number of Allied aircraft it claimed.

With the anti-Tesla movement growing and sales declining by as much as half in some places, the company turned to what may seem an improbable but untapped market: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).  In invitations sent to prospective customers in the kingdom, recipients were requested to RSVP to a launch event at the Bujairi Terrace on 10 April 2025 where they could “Explore our global best-selling line-up and step into a world powered by solar energy, sustained by batteries, and driven by electric vehicles” and “Experience the future of autonomous driving with Cybercab, and meet Optimus, our humanoid robot, as we showcase what's next in AI and robotics.”  Assured real humans would be on hand to answer questions about “Tesla ownership, home charging and more”, the select few were urged: “RSVP now. Space is limited.”  Tesla’s previous neglect of Saudi Arabia was not related to the kingdom being one of the planet’s major producers of fossil fuels (and one which not long ago pledged to extract and sell “every last molecule”).  Instead, the estrangement dated from a 2018 rift between Mr Musk and Saudi Arabia’s PIF (Public Investment Fund the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund) over the failure of a funding deal which would have enabled him to take the company private.  To add insult to injury, the PIF subsequently invested in EV (electric vehicle) start-up Lucid, taking a majority stake and later announcing an intention to purchase as many as 100,000 Lucid EVs over a decade, apparently as part of an effort to reduce the government’s dependence on oil.  All that may not sound encouraging for Tesla and EV sales in Saudi Arabia constitute not even 1% of total but elsewhere in the Gulf, EV penetration in the taxi and ride-hailing sector has been impressive so, coming off a low base, there clearly some scope for growth and even before Tesla’s recent troubles, relations between the parties did seem to be improving.  Apart from all else, Mr Musk is one of nature’s optimists.

Mr Musk is known for his optimism, recently suggesting it was feasible for a settlement on Mars to be established, able to sustain a permanent population of a million people.  That does show an engineer’s faith in technological advances (as well as fiscal provision) because (1) to transport even one person to Mars would take well over a year (thus far the longest duration of one ways trips to somewhere else is the three-odd days it took the twelve Apollo programme astronauts over six trips in 1969-1972), (2) on Mars there is no breathable atmosphere, no known food sources and the availability of usable water is uncertain and (3) the climate is mostly not hospitable for human life with only the equatorial regions ever sometimes rising to what on Earth would be thought temperate (highs between 20°C (68°F) - 35°C (95°F) recorded at noon during summer but typically the whole place is cold especially the poles (-153°C (–243° F) and it’s there water sources (as ice) may exist.  So it’s a challenging place for human habitation and the extent of the challenge is emphasised here on earth with simply a rise on the global average temperature by 3^oC threatening to render certain regions economically unviable for a permanent human presence to be maintained.  It was in an interview with Ted Cruz (b 1970; US senator (Republican-Texas) since 2013) in which Mr Musk speculated about a million folk living on Mars under “glass domes” and the senator is well-aware of the difficulties of coping with extreme cold, having once jetted out of an icy Texas during a cold snap to enjoy the warmth of a Mexico beach, somewhat to the chagrin of the shivering voters he deserted.  On Mars, there are no sun-drenched beaches and whatever Mr Musk’s million souls find when they get there, that’s their life.

The "fascist salute"

The fascist salute has become so associated with Hitler and Nazism that in recent years some jurisdictions have banned its use, emulating the prohibition which has existed in Germany (the sanction pre-dating unification in 1990) for decades.  Because the salute is the same gesture as that used for purposes ranging from waving to one's mother to hailing a taxi, prosecutions are expected to be initiated only in cases of blatant anti-Semitism or other offensive acts.  The "salute" is so widely used that photographs exist of just about every politician in the act and they're often published; usually it's just a cheap journalistic trick but if carefully juxtaposed with something, it can be effective.

Lindsay Lohan: Sometimes, a wave is just a wave.     

Benito Mussolini's (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943) reverence for the Ancient Rome of popular imagination accounts at least in part for the Fascists' adoption of the so-called "Roman salute" although the Duce did also object to the shaking of hands on the basis it was “effete, un-Italian and un-hygienic” and as the reduced infection rates of just about everything during the “elbow-bumping” era of the COVID-19 social isolation illustrated, on that last point, he had a point.  Other fascist regimes and movements also adopted the salute, most infamously the Nazis although none were as devoted as Hitler who, quite plausibly, claimed to have spent hours a day for weeks using a spring-loaded “chest expander” he’d obtained by mail-order so he’d strengthen his shoulder muscles sufficiently to enable him to stand, sometimes for a hour or more with his right arm extended as parades of soldiers passed before him.

A much-published image of the Duce, raising his arm in the fascist salute next to the bronze statue of Nerva (Marcus Cocceius Nerva) (30–98; Roman emperor 96-98) in the Roman Forum.  Often published as an example of the fascist salute's lineage, the emperor is actually holding what's believed to be a scroll.

However, historians maintain there’s simply no evidence anything like the fascist salute of the twentieth century was a part of the culture of Ancient Rome, either among the ruling class or any other part of the population.  Whether the adoption as a alleged emulation of Roman ways was an act of cynicism of self-delusion on the part of the Duce isn’t known although he may have been impressed by the presence of the gesture in neo-classical painting, something interesting because it wasn’t a motif in use prior to the eighteenth century.  This “manufacturing” of Antiquity wasn’t even then something new; the revival of interest in Greece and Rome during the Renaissance resulted in much of the material which in the last few hundred years has informed and defined in the popular imagination how the period looked and what life was like.  By the twentieth century, it was this art which was reflected in the props and sets used in the newly accessible medium of film and the salute, like the architecture, was part of the verisimilitude.  Mussolini enjoyed films and to be fair, there were in Italy a number of statutes from the epoch in which generals, emperors, senators and other worthies had a arm raised although historians can find no evidence which suggests the works were a representation of a cultural practice anything like a salute.  Indeed, an analysis of many statues revealed that rather than salutes, many of the raised arms were actually holding things and one of the best known was revealed to have been repaired after the spear once in the hand had been damaged.

Adolf Hitler showing the "long arm" & "short arm" variants of the fascist salute (left) and examples of the long arm & short arm penalty being awarded in rugby union (right).

In fascist use, what evolved was the “long-arm” salute used on formal occasions or for photo opportunities and a “short-arm” variation which was a gesture which referenced the formal salute which was little more than a bending of the elbow and involved the hand rising at a 45^o angle only to the level of the shoulder; in that the relationship of the short to the long can be thought symbiotic.  Amusingly and wholly unrelated to fascism, the concept was re-appropriated in the refereeing of rugby union where a “short-arm” penalty (officially a “free-kick”) is a penalty awarded for a minor infringement of the games many rules.  Whereas a “full-arm” penalty offers the team the choice of kicking for goal, kicking for touch or taking a tap to resume play, a “short-arm” penalty allows a kick at goal, a kick for touch or the option of setting a scrum instead of a lineout.  The referee signals a “short-arm” penalty by raising their arm at an angle of 45^o.

How it was done: Mussolini, Hitler and Victor Emmanuel III show their interpretations of the fascist salute, the technique varying according to their commitment to the cause.  The trio are reviewing an Italian military parade, Rome, May, 1938. 

Front row: Benito Mussolini (left), Adolf Hitler (centre) and Victor Emmanuel III (1869–1947; King of Italy 1900-1946) (right).

Second row: Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893–1946; Nazi foreign minister 1938-1945, far left), Count Galeazzo Ciano (1903–1944; Italian foreign minister 1936-1943, centre left), Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945, centre right) and Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi deputy Führer 1933-1941, far right).

Back row: The WAGs (wives & girlfriends).

Of the seven men in this image, only Victor Emmanuel would die from natural causes, in exile succumbing to pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs) some 18 months after being compelled to abdicate.  While on the run, the deposed Mussolini would be executed by Italian partisans, Hitler & his new wife would commit suicide in the Berlin Führerbunker with Soviet troops only blocks away, von Ribbentrop would be hanged at Nuremberg after being found guilty of planning aggressive war, waging aggressive war, war crimes & crimes against humanity, Ciano would be executed on the orders of Mussolini (his father-in-law!), Goebbels & his wife would commit suicide (after murdering six of their seven children (aged 5-14)) shortly after the death of Hitler and Hess, sentenced to life imprisonment at Nuremberg for planning & waging aggressive war, committed suicide aged 93, after 46 years in captivity.

A most unfortunate conjunction of imagery: Adolf Hitler on Berlin's newly opened East-West Axis in his Mercedes-Benz 770 K Grosser Cabriolet F open tourer (W150; 1938-1943) in a parade marking his 50^th birthday, opposite the Technical High School, 20 April 1939 (left) and David Bowie in his Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100, 1963-1981) Pullman Landaulet, Victoria Station, London, 2 May 1976 (right).

Sometimes a wave is just an excuse.  The pop star David Bowie (1947-2016) understood he was an influential figure in music but on more than one occasion explained to interviewers: “I am not an original thinker”.  Trawling pop-culture for inspiration nevertheless served him well but he later came to regret dabbling with history slightly less recent.  Not impressed with the state of British society and its economy in the troubled mid-1970s, he was quoted variously as suggesting the country would benefit for “an ultra right-wing government” or “a fascist leader”.  Although he would later claim he was captivated more by the fashions (the long leather coats said to be a favorite) than the policies of the Third Reich, the most celebrated event of this period came in 1976 in what remains known as the "Victoria Station incident".  Mr Bowie staged a media event, arriving standing in an open Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet, recalling for many the way in which Hitler so often appeared in his 770 K.  Unfortunately, a photographer captured a shot in what the singer later claimed was “mid wave” and it certainly resembled a Nazi salute.  He later attributed all that happened during this stage of his career to too many hard drugs which had caused his interest in the aesthetics of inter-war Berlin to turn into an obsession with politics of the period.  All was however quickly forgiven and his audience awaited the next album which is an interesting contrast to the cancel culture created by the shark-feeding dynamic of the social media era.

Now, were a pop star to tell interviewers: “Britain could benefit from a fascist leader” and “I believe very strongly in fascism … Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars”, their future career prospects might be "nasty, solitary, brutish and short".  Despite that orthodoxy however, the multi-media personality Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West (b 1977)) has expressed what seem to be pro-Hitler sentiments and been photographed wearing a "swastika T-shirt", even (briefly) offering them for sale on the (now apparently in abeyance) Yeezy website.  Rather than having him cancelled, Mr Ye's comments and products seem to have had at least a financial upside because in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) he stated: "...AND I MADE 40 MILLION THE NEXT DAY BETWEEN MY DIFFERENT BUSINESS. THERE'S I LOT OF JEWISH PEOPLE I KNOW AND LOVE AND STILL WORK WITH. THE POINT I MADE AND SHOWED IS THAT I AM NOT UNDER JEWISH CONTROL ANYMORE IN WAR YOU TAKE A COUPLE LOSES..."  That would seem to suggest that in the right circumstances, the Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) and Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1975; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945) were right: "It doesn't matter what people are saying about you as long as they're saying something."

The US Pledge of Allegiance salute

Children in the US saluting the flag, circa 1892.  The non-saluting young chap in the centre of the photo is thought to have been distracted by the camera, rather than attempting to exercise his First Amendment rights.

In the US, the “Pledge of Allegiance” salute was visually similar to the fascist gesture but its adoption long predated the Italian and German dictatorships of the inter-war years.  Despite the name, the origin of the so-called “Bellamy salute” (1892) officially is credited to someone else and the true “inventor” (adaptor might be a better term) is contested, there being factions which attribute the honor variously to either (1) American Christian socialist Baptist preacher Francis Bellamy (1855–1931) or (2) confessed Freemason James Upham (1845-1905).  According to Bellamy's published instructions for the “National School Celebration of Columbus Day” (as the 400^th anniversary of the “discovery” of America), the salute was first demonstrated on 21 October, 1892.  It should also be added the text was a revision of the original Pledge of Allegiance, written in 1885 by Captain George Thatcher Balch (1828-1894), an officer in the Union Army during the US Civil War (1861-1865).

The Freemasons stake their claim to the pledge: Plaque at James Upham's grave.

The orthodox history long was the palm-out salute was created by Upham as the gesture to accompany the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America, a text written by Bellamy; known also as the “flag salute”, it gained the name by which it came to be known because it was Bellamy who most assiduously advocated its use.  Not until several years after Upham's death did his family found a copy of the pledge’s original draft, written in his hand, but by then there had already been a ruling attributing credit to Bellamy and a monument in his name erected.  Despite the documentary evidence, in 1939, a committee of the USFA (US Flag Association) ruled in favour of Bellamy and a review issued in 1957 by the Library of Congress in 1957 supported the committee’s findings.  The family never succeeded in gaining Upton official recognition but the Freemasons did have their revenge, “arranging for” the city of Malden to commission a plaque acknowledging his authorship, installing it at Upham’s gravesite in Forestdale cemetery.

The meme makers had much fun with Mr Musk's “My heart goes to you” moment and earlier, those editing fragments from the film Der Untergang (Downfall (2004), a dramatization of Hitler's last days in the Führerbunker) when making contributions to the Hitler Rants Parodies explored the comedic possibilities of the fascist salute. 

Little disquiet about the salute seem to have been expressed during the 1920s but fascism, then associated exclusively with Mussolini’s Italy, didn’t yet have the bad reputation it would gain when the nature of the Nazi regime became better understood (although not until after the end of World War II (1939-1945) were the horrors fully comprehended).  Interestingly, as late as June 1942, at the urging of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Congress had passed Public Law 77-623, which codified the etiquette used to display and pledge allegiance to the flag including the raised arm.  However, now at war with the fascist Axis powers (Germany, Italy & Japan) the controversy increased and, as a consequence, the protocol was revised by replacing the raised arm with an instruction the right hand should be placed over the heart when reciting the pledge, Congress amending the Flag Code on 22 December 22, 1942.  Even that wasn’t without controversy because, after all, the Americans were first and both the USFA and the Daughters of the American Revolution (then still in its pre-DEI (diversity, equity & inclusion) phase) asserted it was inappropriate for the nation to have to change the traditional salute just because foreigners had later adopted a similar gesture.

Context is everything.

Top left: Crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) in Ralph Lauren pantsuit waving to her fans (it's believed, world-wide, there may be as many as a dozen), presidential inauguration ceremony, Washington DC, January 2017; Top right: A kitten, probably stretching but who knows, some cats seem really evil and these three could be an axis of evil.

Bottom left: Australian sprinter Peter Norman (1942–2006, left) and US athletes Tommie Smith (b 1944, centre) & John Carlos (b 1945, right), on the podium after the 200 metres final, Summer Olympics Mexico City, 1968.  Smith and Carlos displayed the "Black Power" salute (with only one pair of gloves, Carlos used his left arm) while in solidarity, Norman wore the OPHR (Olympic Project for Human Rights) badge; Bottom right: Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton (b 1985) who has adopted the Black Power salute to signify his support for BLM (the Black Lives Matter movement).

As well as the modification to the gesture, there have over the years been changes to the text and the most controversial by far proved to be the interpolation of “under God”, a change requested by Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969; US president 1953-1961), concerned about the spread of Godless (though more to the point, un-Christian) communism during the high Cold War.  Because of the “freedom of religion” guaranteed by the US Constitution (primarily protected by the First Amendment (1791): “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”) challenges to that have reached the USSC (US Supreme Court) but as early as 1940 (in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940)) the court ruled 8-1 students could be compelled to recite the pledge, Harlan Stone (1872–1946; associate justice US Supreme Court 1925-1941 & chief justice 1941-1946) issuing the only dissent: “The guarantees of civil liberty are but guarantees of freedom of the human mind and spirit and of reasonable freedom and opportunity to express them…The very essence of the liberty which they guarantee is the freedom of the individual from compulsion as to what he shall think and what he shall say.”

By implication, the ruling meant the state could demand at least an expression of obedience to the nation, even if it conflicted with the doctrine of one’s religion.  Justice Stone’s argument must have been persuasive because in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), the court held the First Amendment guaranteed a right to non-participation in flag salutes although to solve several problems, that case was decided on the basis of protected “free speech” rather than “freedom of religion”.  In the twenty-first century, the cases (now usually based on the argument the phrase “under God” was an unconstitutional endorsement of monotheism have continued but none have succeeded and where possible, judges have found technical (such as a lack of standing) rather than substantive grounds to dismiss although in a lower court in 2015, it was ruled that because since 1943 participation has been “optional”, the pledge was thus a voluntary and patriotic exercise, not a religious one.