After taking a step back from politics and feuding with US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk is also backtracking on some of his actions over the past few months.
Elon Musk has said that him posing with a chainsaw to signify the cuts of wasteful government expenditure might have lacked empathy. “Hitting the debt ceiling is the only thing that will actually force the government to cut waste and fraud. That’s why the debt ceiling legislation exists!” he posted earlier this week on X.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have taken the chainsaw on stage and acted a fool,” X user JimSpradlin7 replied. “Maybe you could have gotten more done if you weren’t so worried about looking cool,” he added.
Musk took the criticism in his stride, and even acknowledged that his actions might not have been constructive. “Valid point. (Argentinian President Javier) Milei gave me the chainsaw backstage and I ran with it, but, in retrospect, it lacked empathy,” Musk said.
In February this year, Elon Musk had taken the stage to applause at the Conservative Political Action Conference. He’d told the audience that Argentina’s President Javier Milei had a gift for him. Milei had then come on to the stage brandishing a chainsaw, which had been a symbol of him cutting wasteful governmental expenditure during his election campaign. Milei had handed over the chainsaw to Musk, who’s then brandished it on stage himself to applause from the audience. “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” he’d declared, and held the chainsaw aloft while making cutting motions. The images had been widely shared, and gone viral on social media.
Musk’s actions, though, had been criticized in some quarters as being too extreme. Cutting government bureaucracy meant that tens of thousands of government roles would be eliminated, and people would lose jobs. A section of the public had felt that Musk — and the rest of the DOGE team — show more sensitivity while taking actions that negatively impacted some Americans’ lives.
Musk now seems to feel the same way. Musk clearly believes that it’s still vital to cut government spending — he appears to be planning to create a new political party at the moment to carry that out — but he now seems to feel that it might be better to be more empathetic while making changes that can upturn the lives of millions of people.