Elon Musk made a high-energy debut at CPAC, waving a silver chainsaw as the packed crowd erupted in cheers. The message was clear: Musk and the Trump administration are taking a sledgehammer—literally and figuratively—to bloated government spending and the federal bureaucracy. As head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has already started slashing the federal workforce and cutting off taxpayer funding for wasteful programs, drawing the fury of Democrats, labor unions, and the legacy media. But Musk, wearing sunglasses and a gold chain, made it clear that their outrage doesn’t phase him one bit.
Elon Musk is gifted a DOGE "chainsaw for bureaucracy" by Argentina President Javier Milei ahead of speaking at CPAC, in which Musk discusses discovered government funding of legacy media and defends his purchase of X: "Freedom is priceless."
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— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 20, 2025
“At this point, I’m not sure how much of the Left is even real,” Musk mused, mocking the dwindling popular support for Democrats. He doubled down, slamming the radical left’s obsession with cancel culture and government overreach. “No, I mean the whole cancel culture, and, you know, it’s trying to stop freedom of speech and infringe upon, just in general, infringe upon people’s personal freedoms,” Musk said. His words landed hard in a crowd that has watched the left try to silence dissent for years.
Musk’s DOGE operation has already sent Washington into a tailspin, forcing bureaucrats out of their taxpayer-funded sinecures and cutting off government cash to leftist institutions. Predictably, Democrats have run to the courts, suing the Trump administration over DOGE’s ability to fire thousands of government workers, shutter federal agencies, and withhold funding that Congress had earmarked for its pet projects. The left, still reeling from Trump’s landslide 2024 victory, has taken to calling Musk “President Musk” in a desperate attempt to turn his success into an attack. Neither Trump nor Musk seem particularly concerned.
Protests broke out across the country on Presidents Day, with leftists raging against Musk’s efficiency crusade. But as he pointed out, a shocking amount of taxpayer dollars were funneled directly to the legacy media before DOGE put an end to it. The administration cut off federal funding for outlets like Politico, further enraging the press, which has long depended on government subsidies to prop up its leftist propaganda.
Musk also championed the idea of a “DOGE dividend,” a plan to distribute 20% of the money saved by his agency directly to taxpayers. If DOGE reaches its $2 trillion spending cut goal, Americans could see up to $5,000 checks. “I told the president, he’s supportive of that. So it sounds like something we’re going to do,” Musk said, sending shockwaves through Washington. But not all conservatives are on board. House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a cautious tone at CPAC, arguing that fiscal responsibility requires paying down the national debt before sending out direct payments. “We have a giant deficit that we’re contending with. I think we need to pay down the credit card, right?” Johnson said.
Whether or not the DOGE dividend becomes reality, one thing is certain—Musk and Trump are shaking Washington to its core. The days of unchecked government waste and unaccountable bureaucrats are over, and the left has no idea how to stop them.
