So, why was Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw on stage? Billionaire's bizarre CPAC move explained

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is well underway and there was one person everyone was waiting to see - Elon Musk - and boy, did he make an entrance.

The 53-year-old took to the stage on Thursday night (20 February), wearing sunglasses and a Make American Great Again cap, and even brought a chainsaw along for the occasion.

The billionaire waved the power tool around as the audience cheered in confusion. Was this just another unexplainable, bizarre Musk stunt?

Well, not exactly.

While a bold move, it was actually a nod to the special guest he was joined by, Argentinian president Javier Milei, who has become synonymous with the chainsaw after he started using it as a prop during his presidential campaign.

It's thought Musk was gifted the chainsaw by Milei himself, before he took to the stage. Milei used to brandish the chainsaw at rallies as a metaphor for him slashing public spending.

"This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy," Musk told the crowd, as he joked that he was "living the meme".

"DOGE started out as a meme," he added. "And now it's real."

However, the fun didn't last long as he went on to suggest he wanted to cut spending on "entitlements" like social security and Medicare by $500 billion per year.

"Elon Musk thinks that firing thousands of people, including veterans, military spouses, people with kids, is like playing a video game where he gets to take a chainsaw to their lives. So fun, amirite?" one person responded to the stunt on X / Twitter.

"Is this a simulation or I just woke up on a weird timeline?" another joked.

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