Washington DC [US], February 21 : Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, holding a chainsaw to emphasise his campaign for reducing the federal budget and workforce through President Donald Trump's proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel, The Hill reported.
Musk, dressed in a black "Make America Great Again" cap and sunglasses, was soon joined by Argentine President Javier Milei, who handed him a chainsaw. Musk raised it to the crowd and said, "This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy."
Milei, who rose to prominence in Argentina with a vow to shake up the country's government and economy, often wields a chainsaw at political events, emblematic of his mission to cut large swaths of his country's federal government, according to The Hill.
Musk further said that the media's repeated use of the phrase "threat to democracy" could be replaced with "threat to bureaucracy", and that would make better sense.
He said, "The legacy media all say the same thing at the same time. They're mouthpieces for the state. They're always saying 'threat to democracy,' but if you just replaced democracy with bureaucracy, it makes a lot of sense."
Meanwhile, Steve Bannon, former Trump aide and White House Chief Strategist spoke about the confirmation of Kash Patel as the FBI director and said, "This is a glorious day. A glorious day and do you know why? Kash Patel is the director of the FBI, confirmed by the US Senate..."
Following his confirmation by the Senate on Thursday as director of the FBI, Patel, an ally of President Trump, expressed his gratitude and vowed to rebuild the agency into one that is "transparent, accountable, and committed to justice."
Patel thanked President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi for their support and emphasised his commitment to restoring public trust in the FBI.
While the nomination faced opposition from Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, Patel received backing from the rest of the Republican Party, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had previously opposed other Trump nominees, according to NBC News.
The confirmation passed with a narrow 51-49 vote, as all Senate Democrats voted against him.