Politics
Musk gets big cheers — and a chainsaw — at CPAC
Elon Musk was hailed as a chainsaw-wielding slasher of the government at his debut at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Appearing on stage in a gold chain, black MAGA hat and sunglasses, the tech mogul on Thursday boasted about taking on the federal bureaucracy and dismissed the Democratic opposition as fake during a sit-down interview with Newsmax host Rob Schmitt. Asked to give the audience a picture of the inside of his mind, he called it “a storm.”
“I am become meme,” he told the crowd outside Washington.
At one point, Argentine President Javier Milei delivered a gilded chainsaw to Musk on the stage. At another, Musk was handed a sci-fi-themed painting of himself.
The crowd ate up the eccentric appearance, giving Musk a standing ovation in some of the most raucous applause at the gathering.
In the month since President Donald Trump took office, Musk has energized Republicans as he’s worked to cut federal grants, reduce the size of the government workforce, and hobble agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The conservative base cheering on Musk at his first CPAC appearance marks a critical moment for the billionaire who previously voted for Democrats and even recently has come under fire from key leaders in the MAGA movement.
Steve Bannon, the former top Trump adviser, has called Musk a “parasitic illegal immigrant” who “wants to impose his freak experiments and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, values or traditions.” Musk has said Bannon is “a great talker, but not a great doer.”
On Wednesday, Bannon continued to press his case against Musk, saying “the oligarchs” will abandon the right.
Conservative activists also lit up Musk in December when he threw his weight behind H-1B visas, which are for workers who are deemed highly skilled, in a debate on his social media site X.
Bannon spoke immediately after Musk at CPAC, setting up the potential for a high-profile clash between two factions of the Republican Party at the annual gathering. But during his Thursday talk, Bannon largely pulled punches against Musk.
“How did I draw the card to follow Elon Musk? Come on, man,” he said, calling him “the world’s wealthiest guy” and “Superman.” In comparison, he added, “I’m just a crazy Irishman.”
Bannon only tweaked Musk somewhat, saying that when the history books are written about this age, “ain’t gonna remember me or Elon Musk or Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity — they’re gonna remember two things, Donald Trump and MAGA, OK?”
Despite fiery attacks from Bannon in recent days outside of his CPAC speech, Musk has been a figure of near universal praise from other speakers of the conference.
Former Trump aide Ric Grenell hailed Musk at CPAC’s international summit on Wednesday, saying, “Thank God he is saving my money and the world is going to benefit.”
International figures at the confab also praised Musk. Liz Truss, who was briefly the British prime minister in 2022, said, “We want Elon Musk and his nerd army of Muskrats examining the British deep state.” Mateusz Morawiecki, who was Polish prime minister from 2017 to 2023, told reporters “we have to really have our European DOGE initiative.”
During the conversation with Schmitt, Musk dismissed Democratic protests as “fake rallies” and said “at this point, I’m not sure how much of the left is even real.” He also lamented the challenges of managing his own security, saying, “I’m open to ideas for improving security, I have to tell you.”
Musk talked about his political transformation, saying it took place “when I realized I was a fool.”
Musk also positioned himself as above being influenced by money.
Musk shrugged off critics who are concerned about the possibility of him accessing data for profit, joking, “If I steal some Social Security, I can finally buy nice things.” Of those who say he’s an asset of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said, laughing, “He can’t afford me.”
Byron Donalds says he is not a ‘yes man’ to Trump
lead image
The progressive political action committee Justice Democrats has appointed Rev. Hodari Williams as its new executive director. The change sets the organization up to hone a civil rights message ahead of the 2028 election cycle, Williams told Blue Light News.
His appointment, shared first with Blue Light News, comes at a time when self-proclaimed progressives (and socialists) are flooding the scene. The PAC has had its most successful election cycle ever, helping seven candidates — including Donavan McKinney in Michigan, Melat Kiros in Colorado and Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York — defeat incumbents in the primaries. While those candidates are heavily favored to win on Election Day, the fates of three other Justice Democrats candidates, including Tennessee’s state Rep. Justin Pearson, remain less certain going into November.
At one point, the group tried to get Williams to run for office. Though he declined, Williams said now is the right time to force change.
“America and its present-day politicians, from my experience, have a high blood pressure of promises and anemia of political courage,” Williams said in an interview, using a common Kenyan political expression. “Right now, JD is producing candidates who have the political courage to deal with the crises that are existing in marginalized and disenfranchised communities, and I want to be a part of that.”
Williams, 46, was born and raised in Lakewood, New Jersey. His parents were activists and community organizers who raised him on the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. After graduating from Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, with his bachelor’s degree, he joined the NAACP as a field organizer for voter rights and empowerment while pursuing his Master’s of Divinity at the Interdenominational Theological Center. In his time with the NAACP, Williams traveled across the Black Belt, where he said he witnessed poverty and inequity up close.
“Civil rights traditionally has been something that people have tried to separate from progressivism … but these movements are inseparable,” said Williams. “What I witnessed in the South as a worker in voter rights and voter empowerment and education, and as a regional representative for the NAACP, was that the conditions that created inequity still existed and needed to be confronted and challenged.”
His work took him to Kenya, where he served as a program coordinator with the Presbyterian Church USA. In Nairobi, he supported the Green Belt Movement’s work against deforestation and its mission to highlight environmental justice as a tool for economic empowerment and self-determination.
Now, as some Black and brown voters express concerns of being tokenized by traditional Democratic candidates, Williams plans to bring his experience working in racial justice circles to his new role.
“I have worked in communities that have borne the brunt of failed promises from the current Democratic leadership,” Williams said. “I have opened the doors of my congregations to politicians and have experienced the absence of those politicians after the elections.”
He continued: “Black communities have become destinations for environmental hazards and data centers. Unemployment has risen. Black federal employees have been targeted. The list goes on. I’ve pastored these people. I’ve prayed with them. I’ve listened to them as they’ve shed tears. Now I’ve decided I want to move from triage work to really transformational work.”
Some of that work will require challenging other Black leaders.
“Unfortunately, many of our Black politicians have become victims of corporate capture, and their voices have been taken by entities like AIPAC,” said Williams, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “They have not really been able to stand for the issues that are affecting the communities that that many of us are fighting for, and JD candidates are free from that, and they’re free to take bold and significant action to move forward legislation.”
But with the 2026 election cycle nearly over, the PAC is already brainstorming how to establish a strong progressive coalition for the 2028 presidential election. That will mean convincing the mainstream Democratic party that Justice Democrats have built a lasting coalition of the party’s base, said Williams.
“We hope that the Democratic Party would see that we’re developing a blueprint to show them how the base is being energized around the issues that are kitchen table issues that people want us to deal with,” said Williams.
“It’s not enough for us just to have a call to defeat a fascist president. We don’t want a fascist president. We want him out, but we also want a vision of what America could look like when affordability, healthcare, civil rights, housing, and livable wages — all of those things are at the top of the political agenda,” he added.
Williams succeeds current executive director and co-founder Alexandra Rojas, who will become president of Justice Democrats’ board and will support Williams as a senior adviser.
Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson took a swipe at the savings habits of millennials as she fielded a question Wednesday about Social Security during a Senate campaign debate.
Hinson, the Republican candidate facing off against Democrat state Rep. Josh Turek, was asked about ensuring the solvency of Social Security when she raised the broader prospect of savings by millennials, the demographic consisting of people born from 1981-1996.
She said the country needed to have a “serious conversation” about “how young people are saving money,” as part of the discussion about the future of Social Security.
“We also need to be talking about millennials saving money,” she later added. “Millennials are the worst group of savers in the country right now and have the least amount of savings. So those are ways where I think we can help have a bigger conversation around saving in general, planning for retirement, and making sure we’re all able to experience a robust retirement.”
Hinson faces a tough race in Iowa against Turek amid a difficult political environment for Republicans. Voters are overwhelmingly pessimistic about the state of the economy and their own personal finances, and they support Social Security while being concerned about the program’s future.
Hinson said she would not support cutting benefits and suggested creating a bipartisan commission to present suggestions to Congress to save the program. When pushed on her statement that “all options should be on the table,” she turned her attention to young people.
“I think my dad and I had this discussion when I was in sixth grade, looking at a ledger book and trying to figure out, hey, how are we going to make sure you’re set up for your life?” she said. “So we need to be having a conversation simultaneously to all solutions on the table, to make sure that it can stay solvent, while we’re also talking about, how do we get more young people to save?”
Hinson’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Turek, when asked about Social Security, said he supports removing the payroll tax cap.
“The best way we can keep this solvent is by taking off the cap,” Turek said. “Let’s make sure that billionaires and large corporations are paying their fair share. That will move the needle in a very serious way to keep Social Security solvent.”
Hinson disagreed. “The only thing I’m hearing from him is that the only solution to everything is to raise taxes,” she said.
- Chris Murphy plans midterm travel blitz, fundraising for Nixon in Florida
- Democrats drop $5M into Kansas Senate race
- House Democratic campaign arm says it needs $17 million, and fast
- Hegseth faces bipartisan backlash over public execution for Fort Hood shooter
- Capitol agenda: How Warren could link arms with Trump’s GOP
- Even some Republicans want this watchdog agency to sue Trump
- Grassley slams Democrats for ‘falling over themselves’ to defend Jack Smith
- This watchdog can bark. Congress wants it to bite.
- Byron Donalds says he is not a ‘yes man’ to Trump
- Mike Rogers opens the door for AIPAC support in Michigan Senate race
-
Politics2 years agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics2 years agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics2 years agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words