Elon Musk says his ‘mind is a storm’ as he brandishes chainsaw on stage at CPAC conference
Elon Musk made quite the entrance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday (20 February).
The Tesla CEO swung a chainsaw around on stage at the Conservative Political Action Committee as he met with Argentinian President Javier Milei.
The billionaire was gifted the chainsaw, by far-right president Milei who’s known for famously hoisting a chainsaw in his own country.
Trump’s close advisor then proceeded to wave it around as the crowd cheered loudly.
After Milei left the stage, Musk got into a heated discussion with Newsmax host Rob Schmitt.
They covered Musk’s concerns over personal security, his goal to tour Fort Knox and review the US gold depository and his journey from political neutrality to being a Trump megadonor. Schmitt asked the SpaceX founder what it was like ‘inside the mind of a genius.’
Musk took a moment before replying: “My mind is a storm. It’s a storm.”
The two criticised the Democrats and labelled them as ‘horrible people’ and then things got a bit more heated when the topic of NASA and the Biden administration came up.
The host questioned Musk’s claim that the White House – under Biden administration – deliberately ‘stranded’ two US astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) after their Boeing spacecraft was de-orbited without them. According to the world’s richest man, the government refused to let SpaceX bring them home just to avoid giving him credit.
Musk said he ‘absolutely’ the astronauts were abandoned by their government. “We obviously could have brought them back sooner, but they didn’t want to do what anyone who supported President Trump wanted,” he stated.
Although, this claim has been repeatedly disputed by NASA and the astronauts who were involved.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been on the ISS since last June, are scheduled to return to Earth next month.
Earlier in the day, the billionaire got into an online spat with former ISS commander, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen.
The ESA astronaut wrote on X: “What a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media.”
Musk retaliated with a vicious commented: “You are fully r*****ed.”
Mogensen then replied: “You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September.
“Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September.”
Elon Musk quizzed over condoms as he admits ‘we all make mistakes’ whilst 4-year-old son is sat on his shoulders
The head of the DOGE admitted: “Well, first of all, some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. So nobody’s going to bat a thousand. I mean, any, you know, we will make mistakes but will act quickly to correct any mistakes.”
He went on to tell the press at the White House: “I’m not sure we should be sending $50 million worth of condoms to anywhere, frankly. I’m not sure that’s something Americans would be really excited about.”
As President Trump chuckled from the sidelines, Musk concluded: “That is really an enormous number of condoms when you think about it, but if it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza, I’m like, ‘Okay, that’s not as bad.'”
The journalist who asked the original question had quizzed Musk on how we could fact-check everything he says and trust his claims of fraud within the government.
Defending his actions, Musk has since reposted the interaction alongside a caption reading: “$50M of condoms is a LOT of condoms.”