To celebrate his first month back in the White House, United States President Donald Trump took a victory lap of sorts before a large group of conservatives, where his former adviser was seen making a Nazi-like salute and billionaire businessman Elon Musk waved a chainsaw.
In a rally-like speech to an enthusiastic audience at the four-day Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on the outskirts of Washington, DC, Trump on Saturday touted his accomplishments since coming into office on January 20, tearing into his political opponents, including predecessor Joe Biden.
“Every single thing he touched turned to s***,” Trump said of Biden, using an expletive and eliciting a standing ovation from the crowd.
Trump also declared that “nobody’s ever seen anything” like his administration’s sweeping effort to fire thousands of federal employees and shrink the size of government, congratulating himself for “dominating” the capital and sending bureaucrats “packing”.
“We’re going to forge a new and lasting political majority that will drive American politics for generations to come,” said Trump, who has hinted at running for a third term in 2028 contrary to what is spelled out in the US Constitution.
Here are the other highlights of the CPAC:
Bannon’s Nazi-like salute
Former Trump political adviser and chief strategist Steve Bannon was accused of making a Nazi salute as he concluded his speech at CPAC, although he insisted that it was just a “wave”.
Bannon was onstage when he extended his right arm in the air, his palm flat, after imploring the crowd to “Fight! Fight! Fight!” – a reference to what Trump shouted after an assassination attempt.
The gesture, which drew comparisons to a gesture Musk made during a Trump inauguration event, prompted immediate backlash, including from the Anti-Defamation League, due to its similarities with the right-arm salute linked in history to the Nazis.
The incident also forced even the French far-right National Rally president Jordan Bardella to cancel his scheduled speech at the same event, prompting Bannon to call Bardella “a boy, not a man”, who is “unworthy to lead France”.
Musk waves a chainsaw
Musk waved a chainsaw in the air as he appeared at the CPAC, showing openness to auditing the Federal Reserve and accusing Democrats of “treason”.
Musk, the Tesla CEO who has become perhaps Trump’s most influential adviser, wore shades and his trademark black “Make America Great Again” hat, and spoke about his crusade to cut government spending and downsize the federal workforce.
Musk then announced that Argentinian President Javier Milei had a gift for him.
The Argentinian leader then walked onstage with the red chainsaw and passed it to Musk, who proceeded to wave it before a cheering crowd. The chainsaw was engraved with Milei’s slogan, “Viva la libertad, carajo”, which is Spanish for “Long live liberty, damn it”.
Milei, who has been frequently praised by Musk, popularised the tool while campaigning in 2023 and proposing slashing public spending.
Milei bats for small government
Returning to the same stage on Saturday, the Argentinian leader urged the enthusiastic CPAC crowd to keep supporting Trump’s measures to shrink the size of the government, saying his methods in Argentina are similar to what the US leader is undertaking.
Speaking in Spanish, Milei expressed support for Trump’s efforts to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), saying it is out of line with the president’s agenda and claiming it was wasteful.
“Our method is similar to that of our dear friend Elon Musk,” Milei said. “To go office by office, keep in place what is working and get rid of the rest. That’s why I gave him a chainsaw.”
He used a different chainsaw as a prop during his 2023 campaign to symbolise his proposals to shred the bloated state. But a year into his presidency, Argentina’s poverty rate hit nearly 53 percent, prompting analysts to call his policy “a disaster”.
Meloni says Europe is not lost
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told the CPAC attendees via a videolink that the US and Europe would remain close under Trump, despite soaring tensions over the fate of Ukraine.
Blaming “ruling classes” and “mainstream media”, Meloni insisted Europe was not “lost”.
“Our adversaries hope that President Trump will move away from us [Europe],” Meloni said, adding, “knowing him as a strong and effective leader, I bet that those who hope for divisions will be proven wrong.”
Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, was the only European Union leader to attend Trump’s inauguration in January, and her allies have presented her as a potential bridge between the EU and the US president.
