It was not misconstrued. Static photos of people gently raising their hands in the air is not the same thing as Elon aggressively extending his arm in a stiff salute twice. At best, you could say he's not actually a Nazi and was just trolling, but Elon's gesture is absolutely a Nazi salute, Taylor swift waving to her fans is not.

Frankly, I'm not sure why people even defend it, Elon openly endorses Nazi commentary on twitter, the salute is just the cherry on top.