Elon Musk holds a chainsaw during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on February 20, 2025. Elon Musk holds a chainsaw during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on February 20, 2025. 

Elon Musk wielded a chainsaw on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday and drew instant ridicule online.

The power tool had earlier been gifted to Musk by Argentine President Javier Milei, a fellow public spending slasher. It was inscribed with the phrase “Viva la libertad, carajo,” which is Spanish for “Long live liberty, damn it.”

Musk, who President Donald Trump has charged with gutting the government through the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, called it the “chainsaw for bureaucracy.”

Critics, though, called the stunt “cringe AF” and much more:

They think this is all a game like WWE, meanwhile people are literally dying, they're tanking the economy, and one of his many children is in a medical crisis that he apparently won't help out with. I know he has no decency, it's just hard to see that no one else in power has the decency to stop him

— Nicole Holliday (@mixedlinguist.bsky.social)2025-02-20T22:18:42.853Z

Argentinian president Javier Milei hands Elon Musk a chainsaw and he waves it around like a giant dork.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net)2025-02-20T22:24:04.183Z

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