At the beginning of his introduction, Argentina President Javier Milei walked out onstage and gifted Musk and chainsaw, in pattern with Milei's own messaging in how he has cut significant spending from the Argentinian government.
"This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy," Musk commented when he was given the chainsaw.
When the topic of the Russia-Ukraine war came up during the interview with Rob Finnerty, Musk quipped, “People sometimes say I'm a bought asset of Putin. I'm like, he can't afford me.”
Musk was asked what he thought about accusations against him about wanting to steal people's Social Security payments by Finnerty or if he would end Social Security payments with President Donald Trump.
Musk joked about the allegation, then added, referring to investigating the different agencies to cut spending, "The actions that we're taking with the support of the President, and the support of the agencies, is what will save Medicare, what will save Social Security."
The tech billionaire emphasized multiple times in the interview that "caring and competence" are needed in order to cut the amount of spending happening in the federal government.
He also addressed the record amount of illegal immigration that took place under former President Joe Biden and said that it was an "actual, real scam at scale" to gain votes for Democrats in the swing states.
Musk, who is the owner of X, shared a couple of posts about speakers at the event ahead of his appearance, including a point made by Vance, who said, "We cannot rebuild Western civilization. We cannot rebuild the United States of America or Europe by letting millions and millions of unvetted illegal migrants come into our country. It has to stop."
Musk also shared a post from Liz Truss, who spoke about pushing for freedom of speech in Europe, a topic that Vance touched on at CPAC as well as during his speech at the Munich Security Conference last week.
Trump has appointed Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiancy (DOGE), the organization that has been auditing different executive agencies for fraud and wasteful spending.
