Elon Musk admitted Tuesday that his decision to wave a chainsaw over his head onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February “lacked empathy.”
Musk was responding to an X user who argued that the multibillionaire’s erratic behavior as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency detracted from its work.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have taken the chainsaw on stage and acted a fool,” the user wrote. ”Maybe you could have gotten more done if you weren’t so worried about looking cool.”
Musk took a degree of responsibility—but also tacked blame for the stunt on Argentinian President Javier Milei, who had given Musk the chainsaw as a symbol of his efforts to slash federal spending.
“Valid point,” he wrote back. “Milei gave me the chainsaw backstage and I ran with it, but, in retrospect, it lacked empathy.”
The stunt happened when Musk appeared at CPAC earlier this year—a night that was dominated by the then-head of DOGE’s erratic behavior.
Musk—who was wearing sunglasses, a gold chain, and a T-shirt under a blazer—delivered a number of bizarre lines at the event, at one point declaring, “I am become meme.”
The antics caused “ketamine” to trend on X. Musk has admitted to using the drug in the past.
When Musk and President Donald Trump went through their high-profile break-up in June, Trump insinuated that Musk’s drug use could be to blame.
For his part, Musk fired a number of nasty shots at Trump—the biggest of which was an allegation that Trump is in unreleased government files on sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein. He later deleted this claim.
The feud between Musk and Trump has reignited over the past several days as the president has attempted to push his “One, Big, Beautiful Bill”—which Musk hates—through the Senate.
On Tuesday, Trump threatened to sic Musk’s own former cost-cutting agency against him, saying, “DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.”
Musk responded on X, writing, “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.”
