Elon Musk 'chainsaw for bureaucracy' interview by JD Vance at CPAC!

That was something I am become meme. Yeah, pretty much. I'm just I was living the meme. I'm just like it just.

Living the dream and there's living the meme and it's pretty much what's happening. You know, you're like I think you're he door started out as a meme.

Think about it now, It's real.

Isn't that crazy? It is?

It is crazy, but it's cool.

Let me ask you this.

A year ago, if someone had told you you'd be at seapack and working with the president absolutely shred the government, the swamp, whatever you want to call it, would you ever believe then?

No, no, you need it.

But it's cool.

This is awesome, and I just want to say, you know, thanks for your support.

I mean, guys, are you know so I mean we're you know.

Trying to get get good things done, but also like you know, have a good time doing it and you know, and have like a sense of humor.

You know, so like I mean, the sort of the.

Left wanted to make comedy illegal. You know, you can't make fun of anything, so it was like comedy sucks.

It's like nothing's funny, you can't make fun of anything.

It's like legalized comedy, Yeah, legalized comedy.

And we've we've shifted the entire culture in just the last few months.

The whole culture of.

This country has shifted dramatically just because of that election.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, freedom of speech, having you know, having fun again.

It seems like we should have we should have a good time, you know.

I mean, it's it's a great time. Everybody in this place is so excited. And yeah, I haven't.

I mean when you talk to conservatives, everybody's happy.

Yeah, and everybody.

Feels this great sense of relief because we were going to hell for about four years.

It really felt bad.

Yeah, especially toward the end, it felt really bad.

Yeah, I mean I thought were I thought we were sort of heading for a point and overturn really, you know, until That's why I was so essential that President Trump win the election and uh, and that there will be a Republican majority in the House of Senate, which, thanks to.

You, would that that has been accomplished.

Yeah.

Yeah, Like I.

Want to ask you one of the biggest questions I have for you is, and you've you've been you know politically, you weren't really on one side or the other for a long time.

You're a businessman.

A lot of people stay away from it. Now you're on a side, and you've chosen to decide. You're sitting here in a maga hat.

What what's it? How did that happen? What was the moment?

You know, dark gothic magas, that's a good one.

What was there a specific moment? Was there a moment that it all changed?

Yeah, when I realized it was a fool, But no, I was.

I guess uh yeah, I mean i'd say, like its politically neutral for for quite a while, you know, you know.

Leaning a little democrat. You know, how do you go from this?

Well, did they go crazy?

Yeah?

They did.

They did go crazy and they were crazy. No, I mean the whole cancel culture, and.

You know, it's trying to stuff freedom of speech and in fringe upon just in general, in fringe upon people's personal freedoms. You know, they just want state control, state control of what you say. They want to you know, take away your your guns and the reason why, take all your vuns. So like there's nothing you do to oppose them. So it's sort of like, you know, I just I just like we just need to restore the fundamental elements of what made America great, which is a freedom and opportunity.

We're seeing a lot of these freedoms disappearing in the West. It's it's not just about America we're watching. We're all watching Europe and knowing that they're about fifty hundred years ahead of us, right because they got an early start, and we're watching how they're devolving, and you're trying to save it from happening here.

No.

I mean in Europe they put people in prison for memes. Yeah, you know, I'm like, that's insane.

And they're collapsing.

I mean, there's a society is it's a collapsing society. It feels that way. It feels like France was nicer fifty years ago than it is today.

Yeah.

I don't think you can question that.

Yeah, so, but yeah, I mean really nice. I me, I mean, I really I really just wanted to do.

Useful things, like you know, basically build products, you know, provide products and services that are that are good and uh that I wasn't really like that interested in being political. It's just like there was at a certain point no choice.

So yeah, can I ask you what on the same side of that coin, what's it like from going neutral to being vilified, largely villafied by the media.

You're what, no, really, I.

Mean to turn on some of these channels, brother, I mean they're angry.

Does it bother you at all?

This?

I mean when they're chanting for my death, I suppose that's a little yeah good, but then like the song is not even that good, and that it's like, like you call that a death chant.

That's nothing.

They've been singing a lot of good music.

There's a lot of music lately. It's not good music.

Yeah, I would say that they're you know, watching what you're doing with those is just that people love it.

I mean, I've always looked at the government, and I've always looked at the government.

I've seen this big machine that and you just know that the waste because they don't care. Nobody could there's more money coming, they don't care.

You're cutting all this out.

Everybody in this country knows that the government is full of waste, fraud.

And abuse.

And you're doing the work and the Americans love it. Watching their reaction politically to this, I can't believe how bad they are responding to this. I don't know how you're gonna sit there and scream and complain because they're cutting waste out of the government and try to win another election.

How do you try to win on them?

Well, at this point, I'm like, I'm not sure how much of the left is even real?

You know?

How much was propped up by our money? You know?

Yeah?

Yeah, like literally you see like these these sort of fake rallies where it's like hardly any any people, and the media will like frame it and like you know, get full six people you know in the frame, but it's like nobody else is there, like just it's it doesn't have popular support, but but there's But then you learn that like this hundreds of billions of dollars going to be so called NGO.

Yeah. Uh that that that.

And it's your tax dollars that are funding things that are fundamentally anti American and the propping up their narrative.

Yeah, a lot of that government money has been propping up a left that I don't think is as strong as they made it seem.

In fact, a massive amount of of your tax dollars is going to legacy media companies.

Yes, uh, directly from the from the from the government.

The government wants to take over media.

Yeah, it's terrible.

Yeah, that's why we have X.

Yeah, and that's that's.

Why you spend forty four billion dollars. I mean there's a lot of money, I mean, more than it was probably worth, but it had.

There was a message freedom is priceless, priceless.

Yeah.

Yeah, probably one of the most important investments this country's ever seen.

If you've got to protect the First.

Amendment, it's not much more important than that.

Yeah, I mean I got a lot of criticism and Puel said, well that proves he is a huge idiot from a you know, like look, you know you voted.

For whatever forty four billion dollars.

Now it's worth like eight cents, and but you.

Know that's that.

But but the yeah, it was essentially to you know, by freedom of expression.

And yes, that's gone. It's all over. It's all over. Yeah, the tyranny is really quick after that. Yeah, I mean, like.

You know, it's all all the sort of federal money going to media companies is what what helps explain why the legacy media all says the same thing at the same time. Yeah, like this is it like it's like weird, like you can put them up where it's like you know, like.

When they their mouthpieces for for the state, for the state.

Yes, and that's that's what we've come to know.

Yeah, scary and I like that being where they where they because they're always saying, like threat.

To our democracy?

Is that threat to But if you just replaced democracy with bureaucracy.

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

It makes perfect sense.

Yeah, bigres to the bureaucracy.

That's exactly right.

Let's talk about let's talk about these dose dividend checks that everybody's talking about this week. And I know you tweeted out that you're gonna does everybody want like a five thousand dollars check in the mail? Sounds kind of good, right, And and the best part about it would be knowing where it came from.

That that's five grand that you sent them last year.

Totally, it's it's it's it's money that's taken away from from things that are destructive to the country. That and from organizations that hate you. To you, that's awesome.

It does it seem I mean, have you talked.

I mean that's glorious.

That's like the spoils of battle, you know, I like that is.

There is there traction on that yeah.

Yeah, so yeah, uh yeah, I took the president he's supportive of that, and so it sounds like, you know, that's something we're gonna do.

Yep.

So as we're fining savings, that's going to translate directly to reductions in attacks.

So yeah, I mean I think they fired six thousand people at the I R S today. Yeah, And I think Letnik said last night that they're talking about shutting down the IRS, and I think it's fair. I think people should realize this is I mean the amount of money that we said we send Washington like five or six trillion a year, that is such an ungodly amount of money. I mean what they say, like a trillion

There must be a lot you can cut.

No, absolutely.

People ask me, what's the most surprising thing that you've encountered when you go to DC, you know, when you're in DC, and I said, well, the most surprising thing is the scale of the expenditures and actually how easy it is to with just just when you add caring and competence where it was absent before you can actually save billions of dollars sometimes in an hour.

Yeah, it's wild.

And then they scoff at it and then say, oh, a few billion here there. I mean, the way they're talking about it, you can see they don't care. It's it's so it's such a little money compared to how much they're used to wasting.

That's what's really scary.

Yeah, no, I mean, it's exactly, but obviously it's it's it just shows that they really lack empathy for the average taxpayer who's working hard, paying paying taxes. And then and then they say, oh, a million dollars doesn't matter.

I'm like, I think it ratters a lot. Yeah, people, you know, I mean, what are you talking about.

I'd like to have it. Let me ask you a question. I you know, I know the president fairly well.

Watched him survive two assassination attempts, the second.

Had the first one not happened, the second one.

Would have gotten them.

You know, it was very because without those extra guys, they would have never seen that gun poking through the fence at the golf course.

I saw that the crew that the crew that you mind blowing that this has happened I mean it just and what, by the way, why do we still learn.

Nothing about that guy in Butler? What's going on? But he's cash is going to get to the bottom of it.

Yeah, there you go. Well way, yeah, confirm confirmed just a couple of hours ago. But I saw that the security detail that you had come in is enormous.

Well that enormous. Maybe it should be vag I think you.

Could probably afford it.

But I mean, how concerned are you about your safety dealing? I mean it's you are you are a wanted man?

Are you?

Are you?

So?

I look, I'm open to ideas for improving security. I have to tell you, like, I don't actually have a death wish, I think, but but you know, it's not that easy. So uh yeah, I mean but I have like I've had even like people like President Bokelly from El Salvador who managed to put in prison like like one hundred thousand like murderous thugs. And he was like he told me, He's like, I'm worried about your security.

I'm like, you're you're worried about my security. I'm like, what, okay, do you know?

I mean, yeah, talk about guts to do that down there? I mean, yeah, totally and survive.

I'm like, I was like, how did you put all those thugs in prison without dying?

Because things like that would have been not easy.

You know. Well, there's the president is one of his top attorneys is down investigating I guess Chuck Schumer for threats against Skotis Congressman. The Democrats side, we're saying, you know, basically saying you're going.

To bring a war to you, like a fight to you. I mean the rhetoric.

You guys are screwing with things that are not supposed to be messed with you. We're fighting a lot of people that really don't want that to happen.

Yeah, we're fighting matrix big time here. Yeah, but has got to be done. Yeah, and are.

It certainly does. What's what's going on with tell us about Fort Knox. Yeah, there's Kentucky. It's a military base. It's a ton of gold, tons and tons and tons.

Five thousand tons of gold or.

Are there in the ground and like this, I mean, it's a very secure thing.

We'll want to see it, you know, I'd love to see it, like this is your gold.

By the way, it's the public's goal.

Do you think it's not there.

I don't know, but we just want to see it.

Yeah, we want to go see it and just make sure like somebody to just spray paint some letter or something.

You know, yeah, like is this real gold?

You know, I have to bite the bar, you know, didn't.

But I think, honestly, you know, part of this also is just like let's let's you know, let's have some fun and and and uh you know, like like I said, this this all this gold at Fort Knox. It's the public's goal, it's your goal. So like I think you have like a right to see it.

Take a tour, you know. Yeah, I think we should have to do it. Do it.

Turned then the President last night was like that's not I think he's your favorite of it.

That'd be cool. And then we like it should be like a live tour, like you can see what's going on. Open the door, like what's behind it? Well, and there's you know, I think i'd watch that.

Oh you kidding? Yeah, I mean, what is what is five thousand tons of food? How big is it?

Is it?

The size of it?

This is gonna be pretty big.

You know, it's got to be a lot of there's some other stuff in there, like it's what walk around like, I don't know if I get some other stuff in there?

Are are you thinking about auditing the Federal Reserve as.

Well, which is obviously yeah, sure, regulatory economy. I I imagine you think the waste has got to be everywhere?

Yeah, no, waste.

Waste is pretty much where people ask how can you find waste in like in DC? I'm like, look, it's like being in a room, uh created and this target, the wall, the roofs, and the floor are old targets. So it's like you're gonna close rise and go shoot in any direction.

Because you can't miss, you know.

So it's it's it's pretty wild, like like you just push on things a little bit and you say.

Billions of dollars like just a little bit. You know, it's wild.

It's scary, isn't it.

That's why I say it, like it really is underrated. If you add carrying and competence, how much things improve and you know, and we we just find so many totally crazy things, which you know, obviously we're sharing with the public. We post everything we learn, you know, just you know, so you.

Can see it. You know, what do you I mean? Like it's like, isn't it, Like it's.

Totally wild, Like we didn't just we just did like a check the database on Social Security, Like he says, how many Americans alive Americans eligible for Social Security are there? And according to the database, it's over four hundred million, And we're like, wait a second.

And how many are how many are again? Yeah?

And then like we found like one person in there is like three hundred and sixty years old.

I'm like, what do they know?

You know, the America doesn't exist before at that time.

Like so we were colonies. You know.

Maybe it's just me, but I think it's a red flag.

I don't know, But are.

There indications that those that there were checks going to those people, any.

Of those people?

Well?

Yes, I guess the question, right.

I mean, I get the Social Security Administration's dumb, but are they paying these people?

Are they that dumb?

I don't know, a.

Bunch of money is going out from the Social Security Administration and in fact from all entitled programs seventy.

Billion and waste in like seven years, it's ten billion a year.

Well, I think the fraudulent.

Payments the rough estimate from General Government Accountability officers as over five hundred billion dollars a forty year for five hundred billion.

And how old the time per year per year on Social Security?

No, No, on all government, on all entitlements, all entitlements.

Yeah.

Yeah, it sort of actually makes sense when you look at the thing from a top level and say, like, okay, the seven trillion dollars was spending by the government, what percentage do you think is fraudulent? Okay, exactly, Like a conservative estimate of the seven trillion would be ten percent.

Conservative probably will hire that exactly. It's like a quarter hunt a dollar, right, But if the fraud's.

Only ten percent of seven trillion, you've got seven hundred billion dollars of fraud.

Yeah.

And by the way, it's like really easy to take advantage of the federal government, very easy.

Easy.

Look at COVID.

Yes, everybody got reach during COVID.

I mean, look at all these stars.

I mean it's unbelievable.

It looks like in terms of COVID payments, there was something like two hundred billion dollars of COVID payment fraud.

Taken by frauds's out of the country.

That's like, I think we've listening. There's gonna be FORUDA should a least be domestic. So you know, but they managed to get two hundred billion dollars out of the country.

I'm like, what didn't we notice that?

Let me ask you, let's do immigration here for a second.

You know, there's this move now that the Trump's latest thing is that he cut He's gonna cut funding any kind of money that ends up in the hands of illegal immigrants.

So if you're funding these sanctuary.

Cities and states, that's how they thrive, right, They're paying for these hotels, that's all federal money. If you've got a hotel in your city in New York, you got all these hotels full of migrants, that's not state money, that's a Feds.

Are covering that.

He's gonna cut all that. It's really hard to deport fifteen million people.

And it seems like the move now is let's see if we especially at the rate that we're going, it seems like.

The move now is let's make it so that they leave on their own.

If there's no longer a dual system for them, if they can't get their hands on hotel rooms and money, they're going to go back, especially if there's no work.

Well.

I think it's really important for people that understand that the Biden administration sent any possible money that they could.

They could. If there was money they could send to.

Facilitate and amplify illegal immigration, they sent it. Okay, they took money from FEMA meantful helping Americans in distress and sent that money to luxury hotels for legal immigrants.

In New York an outrage.

Yea, they actually did that, and only that even after the President signed an executive order saying it has to stop the famous the sort of whatever deep state bureaucrats still still press send on eighty million dollars last week.

To go to the Roosevelt Hotel in New York and other places last week.

Now and now they're mad that got stopped and they're like trying to sue to have it be restored.

It's like the gumption you.

Think they're creating a new voter classes.

Would you think that was the goal when they open up orders for four years, create a new voter class and get them citizenship, get them in, Yeah, vote.

A lot of these things like you don't actually have to assume some grand conspiracy. You just need to look at basic incentives benefits. So if the incentives fundamentally, if the probability that an illegal is going to vote Democrat at some point, whether it's a cheating but eventually they can become citizens.

But if probability is like eighty ninety.

Percent, just look at California, which is the super majority dem and then the incentive is to maximize the number of illegals in the country. That is why the Biding administration was pushing to get in as many illegals as possible and spend every dollar possible to get as many because every one of them is a customer, everyone is a voter.

Yeah, and so the whole thing is a giant.

Voter importation scam, pretty obvious, very obvious. And then moreover then they actually created the CVP one voter app thing. Where they were which is like where they could they were literally fly people in. It's not like at the point in which you know, people being flown in at your expense.

Sending planes wall up doesn't fly them over the board literally flying them in. No other no other country in the world would do something like this. Nobody is as stupid.

Yeah, and then we found that it was like a hundred million dollar contract given to some guy in London actually oddly, you know, for the CVP one app So then so they're flying illegals into the swing states. And if you've got like a modulive victory of maybe twenty thousand people and you fly two hundred thousand illegals into that state, it's not.

Going to be a swing state. Belong.

Change the numbers eventually, yeah, maybe in four eight years exactly.

It's just a matter of it's a long game. It's just a matter of time.

So it might take like a year for an asyunment securse something to get on to get a green card, in five years for the citizenship. It's it's an investment that is guaranteed to pay off.

Just a question of when they all remember who brought them in and who.

Left them here exactly exactly.

I want to go back. I want to talk about big deal.

I think a lot of people like don't quite appreciate that this was an actual, real scam at scale to.

Tilt the scales of democracy in America.

Treasons treason, yeah, yeah, one more Biden question. I remember when you know, when they would do the electric car stuff, they would always try to box you out even though you have the only electric car anybody wants. Yeah, you said, I think this week that you think that Biden left these astronauts up in space because he didn't want to give you an opportunity to save them, make NASA look bad, make the private sector look better, make you look good, you believe it?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, so, of course I.

Kind of agree.

I mean, why would you want to let you help them come down when you're supporting the president.

Biden administration was attacking the next level, I mean the departmatists of justice or injustice under the Biden administration was Yeah, I mean, there was suing SpaceX's they're suing space x for not hiring asylum seekers and we're like, but it's actually illegal for us to hire up silent sekerts because

A lot of them are saying right now that the reason that you want to get into Social Security, that you want to get into all of these different into Treasury and things like that, is that you're looking for personal information and you're trying to make more money.

Yeah.

I've never met anybody as rich as you that cared less about money in my life. Every time I hear a story about you, you're sleeping on a couch of some other guy in a city.

That you could buy the entire thing.

Yeah, I'm not.

I don't think you care about money, dude.

No, Actually, I I.

Mean listen, like if I if I steal some Social Security, I can finally buy nice things.

Yeah, and and and on that same question, they're also talking about you guys are gonna end social Security, You're gonna end Medicare, You're gonna end these things. I don't imagine that conversation has been head with the president.

And that's that's the plan.

No, in fact, the action instead 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? And and it's it's because if the country goes in solvent, if if if all the if all the money is just spent on paying interest on debt, there's no money left for anything. So that's that's the reason I'm doing this, is because I'm I was looking at the big picture

Trillion a year. Interest just to carry the money that we owe is a trillion a year.

It's unbelievable, rising rapidly. It's so so like it's I mean, a country is not different from a person. Country overspends, country goes bankrupt. Same what the same as a person who overspends goes bankrupt.

So it's it's not like optional to solve these things. It's essential.

So we're gonna go back there.

Yes, we are.

A couple of minutes left here Russia. There's a huge push from oh.

Yeah yeah, like day like yah, you know, I'm a on the board asset of Putin.

I'm like, he can't afford me.

Yeah, I think I think you're worth more than Russia.

Think about it.

So what we're you're trying to end. You're trying to end a war, it's all.

Any war always means you have to compromise, you have to negotiate.

With an enemy or an adversary. That's just what it is.

And right now they are land basking the president for trying a different method to war that they haven't been able to end.

For three and a half years or three years.

Yeah, you know they're saying Trump's blaming Zelensky for the invasion. How do you how do you process all of the negativity towards him for trying to end this war?

Well, first of all, I think we should have empathy for the people dying at the front lines. That's the most important thing. And people have been dying, you know, it's like, how many more years is this supposed to go on. Yeah, and I imagine if that was your son, your father, you know, what are they dying for?

Yeah?

What exactly arey're dying for?

That line has the line of engagement is barely moved for two years. There's a how much people dead in trenches for what? And I'll tell you work for what it's like for the biggest graph machine that I've ever seen in my life.

That's for what.

It's it's unreal Like the amount of money that is being taken in graft and bribery is disgusting. And so what's actually happening is that those those you know people, those poor guys are getting sent into a meat grinder for money. That's what's actually going on, and it needs to stop.

And that's I mean, that's it seems. I mean, Trump is so pragmatic on this.

He's just he's just looking at it, and he's saying, it's Ukraine, it's not our country, it's not a NATO ally.

I just want to see people not dying. I want to see on both sides.

I mean, think about how many young so many young men have died in Ukraine that the army is starting to age out the military is aging out. You get forty and five, your old guys fighting in a war because there's nobody left that's not killed or mained in their twenties. That's the reality of the Think about how many people that is. If you're a humanitarian at all, you just got to end the war, like, no matter what, just get it over with.

Yes, people, they need to stop dying. And uh and the griff machine's got to stop, you know. So uh And I think people that don't a lot of people out there don't realize, Like the President has a lot of empathy.

He really cares, you know, He's a good He's a good man.

So I got one more for you.

I've been fascinated by you for a very long time.

Thanks.

I've just I just I've never seen anybody that can, you know, do so many things at the same time. I mean, you've got the rockets, you got the cars. I've always wanted to ask you, what is it like inside your mind?

Like this is it just a thousand miles an hour? I mean, are you is it just not? I mean, just does it ever stop? Do you sleep? How much do you sleep?

What's paint us a picture of inside of the mind of a genius, Like, how do you, uh, can you answer that question?

It's not an easy question.

I mean, my mind is a storm. Yeah, so yeah, it's a storm.

But but I mean, let me maybe tell you something like you're gonna ask the question, but but I think it's worth and nonetheless maybe just just elaborating or something, which is you know, I grew up in in South Africa, and but my morality was informed by America. I read comic books, you know, I played dungeons and Dragons and.

And I watched American TV shows and.

Like it seemed like America cared about being the good guys, you know, about doing the right thing and yeah, and that's actually pretty unusual, by the way.

It's like it's like in the world, it's very unusual.

Yeah, it's not like actual countries don't do that.

No, they don't know.

And so I was like, yeah, you know, you want to be this good that you want to be on the side of good, you want to care about what's right, and and.

Uh yeah, so that's that's uh, yeah, what I believe in. You know.

So I gave you, I gave you a tough one at the end.

I yeah, so yeah, that's great.

That's great. Elon Musk, all right, thank you, thank you so much.

All right,