Musk hugs Milei (and his chainsaw) in the midst of the crisis over fraudulent cryptocurrency

WashingtonThey say a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of Argentine President Javier Milei, the photograph of Elon Musk raising his chainsaw - literally - is worth more than anything else that could have been said to give him oxygen in the midst of the political crisis he is experiencing due to the fraudulent cryptocurrency $LIBRA. "President Milei has a gift for me. Javier Milei, from Argentina. You know who I'm talking about, right?" Musk asked when he appeared as a surprise speaker at the ultraconservative CPAC conference this Thursday. Immediately, Milei appeared with a chainsaw that he gave to the billionaire.

Although no details of the meeting between Musk and Milei this Thursday have been revealed, the Argentine has been quick to share the video on his X account where he hugs the owner of SpaceX shouting "Hello, friend!" The tweet was published on the same X account where he promoted the launch of the cryptocurrency $LIBRA on Saturday. In the post, which she deleted within hours of the cryptocurrency crashing, Milei argued that it would help "incentivize the growth of the Argentine economy." The end result of the scheme was that the $LIBRA plummeted after soaring to $4.5 billion, causing huge losses for all those who had invested in it. Many influencers Cryptocurrency giants have sworn revenge against Milei as the Argentine Anti-Corruption Office investigates the leader's relationship with cryptocurrency.

The chainsaw that Milei has given to Musk is a replica of the original that he has in his office and is an explicit reference to the cuts that the billionaire is perpetrating against the US administration."This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!", Musk shouted as he held it up in front of a crowd that was going wild for the appearance of one of the idols of the far right. This time there was no Nazi salute from Musk, although former Trump adviser Steve Bannon did.Yes, he did it during his speech. on the first day of the ultra conference held in Washington. The Spanish Santiago Abascal and Britain's Nigel Farage also spoke on Thursday. On Saturday, Trump is expected to close what has become the summit of international reaction.

Without taking off his black MAGA cap or sunglasses, Musk has begun to repeat the same old speech about his role as a supposed defender of freedom of expression and the importance of attacking American agencies. "In Europe, they lock people up in prison for making memes. This is crazy," Musk said, without evidence, in a statement that coincides with the attacks against the European Union by Vice President JD Vance during the Munich Security Conference.

Musk has also attacked the American media: "A large part of their taxes go to traditional media directly from the government." Therefore, he continued, these same media "only focus on the six people" who are at left-wing events. With these criticisms Musk refers to the federal subscriptions that existed for large media such as Politico or The Washington Post.

This week, the State Department had ordered the cancellation of all subscriptions to media deemed "non-mission essential," according to a report The Washington Post. Similarly, the White House recently banned Associated Press journalists (but not cameras) from the Oval Office because the news agency continued to use the term Golf de México instead of "Golf de América," as Trump wants.

Continued attacks on the press

In parallel with the campaign that the American president is launching against the fourth power, the media, Musk spoke again as the leader of the task force that perpetrated the cuts against federal agencies. The controversy surrounding Musk's role within DOGE has only grown in recent days. The billionaire and Trump defend that there are no conflicts of interest while Musk runs the chainsaw precisely through those agencies that had open investigations against their companies.

Both magnates hide behind the supposed "transparency" of DOGE. Until now, Musk has theoretically been presented as the administrator of the task force, but it turns out that in a court document the White House said that the South African is not the owner of DOGE and also did not give any details about who is leading the agency on paper. Information about the structure of DOGE and who its workers are is scarce and now it turns out that Musk, who acts as if he were the head, is not. The White House has yet to provide further explanation for a task force that has accessed critical information, such as the Social Security numbers of thousands of American taxpayers.

Meanwhile, at CPAC, Musk tossed out numbers and said: "The actions we are taking, with the support of the president and the agencies, are the ones that will save Medicare, the ones that will save Social Security." In a survey published this Thursday by Reuters, just one month into Trump's presidency, 58% of Americans said they were concerned that Musk's intervention could delay federal programs such as Social Security retirement payments and student aid.