Still frames rarely tell the whole picture
This clip shows something I find even more disturbing than the thought that Trump called for a Nazi salute to demonstrate personal loyalty: His supporters did so spontaneously. At about 15 seconds into the clip, Trump says "Can I have a pledge?", and in the lower left quadrant a whole group of people immediately give the classic Nazi salute, arm rigid, 45 degree angle, palm down, fingers together. Before he asked them to raise their right arms.
They knew the proper response to Trump's call for a pledge of fealty.
You said you don't see it in the still frame, though I do see a couple right in front of the camera with arms stiff and at an angle. It's more obvious in the video among that one group. But I also see in the video how, after Trump prompted everybody to raise their right arms, the crowd as a whole was a lot sloppier than the first phalanx to salute. Most of the people behind Trump facing the camera have the arm crooked and the forearm generally vertical. More like taking an oath in court. Though it does look from the back that the crowd in front of Trump held their arms more rigidly. They may have been following the lead of that first group in their midst to raise their arms.
BTW, the difference in the two salute styles is why I see significance in Trump's instruction to raise the right arm instead of hand. When somebody is instructed to take an oath, they're told to "raise your right hand". Not arm. I think that's a strong sign that Trump had in mind the stiff-armed Nazi salute, and not a meekly raised right hand, when he asked the crowd to pledge their loyalty to him.
Well, at least we agree about Trump's fitness to be President. Frankly, though, it's his followers who really scare the piss out of me. I didn't know junkyard dogs could walk on two legs.
