Elon Musk rode online hucksterism into the Oval Office. Javier Milei waited until after he'd secured the Argentinian presidency to associate with digital grifters. It only makes sense that the two libertarians would collide at the hive of scum and villainy that is CPAC.
Musk was gifted one of Milei's favorite campaign trail props on the stage: a chainsaw. Meant to represent the pair's hack-and-slash attitude toward the federal government, it instead gave Musk the opportunity to groan and shout while awkwardly waving a power tool.
"This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy," he shouted before doing a Leatherfacian waltz. "Chainsaw!"
Elon Musk is swinging around a chainsaw at CPAC pic.twitter.com/J1fGdOXBOD
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 20, 2025
The bit of lumberjack cosplay came as the Trump administration was beginning layoffs of around 6,000 employees of the Internal Revenue Service. The tax agency was targeted directly by President Donald Trump in an executive order, but the layoffs were one small part of a much wider attack on federal employees being carried out by Trump's cronies, none more visible than Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump and Musk have been attached at the hip since before Election Day, with the pair taking joint interviews and phone calls from world leaders. Musk appeared to inspire an early attempt to clear out federal workers with an offer of "deferred resignations" and both DOGE and Trump's orders have cut portions of the government with all the finesse of...well, a chainsaw. The mass layoffs at the IRS are part of a wider Trump plan to shutter the agency, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
"His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay," Lutnick shared during an appearance on Fox News earlier this week.
