US President Donald Trump’s former ally Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla has on Wednesday expressed his regret over wielding a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), that he attended earlier this year.
Musk was announced as a speaker at that event and had met with Argentine President Javier Milei who had frequently appreciated Musk. The chainsaw became a symbol for the federal budget being slashed beyond recognition.
Earlier today Musk had posted on X, “Hitting the debt ceiling is the only thing that will actually force the government to cut waste and fraud. That’s why the debt ceiling legislation exists!”
Replying to a comment on the post that said that Musk shouldn’t have “taken the chainsaw on stage and acted a fool” and could have “gotten more done” if he was not concerned about “looking cool”, Musk responded “Valid point. Milei gave me the chainsaw backstage and I ran with it, but, in retrospect, it lacked empathy.”
At the event, Musk was welcomed with huge cheers and he appeared on stage with a hat that read “Make America Great Again”, as reported by AP. The Argentine leader then took the stage holding a red chainsaw and passed it onto Musk Engraved onto it was the slogan “Viva la libertad, carajo,” which is the Spanish for “Long live liberty, damn it.”
Trump and Musk are embroiled in a dispute over the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Trump claimed that without taxpayer funding, Musk wouldn’t have been able to build electric cars, launch rockets, or run satellite services.
The US president issued a warning earlier today through a post on Truth Social that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO might have to “head back home to South Africa” without the financial support of federal subsidies. “ Our country would save a FORTUNE” Trump wrote on a post on Truth Social. “Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!” he added.
To this Musk responded on X “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.”
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