Elon Musk made a weird look on the conservative CPAC convention on Thursday and promoted a racist anti-immigration conspiracy principle within the course of.
Musk walked on stage and was gifted a chainsaw by Argentine President Javier Milei. The device was apparently a “chainsaw for paperwork” meant to symbolize the cuts to government made under the Department of Government Efficiency, the group Musk was appointed to lead by President Donald Trump that has been creating havoc throughout the nation.
The multibillionaire then turned to certainly one of his core points: selling racist conspiracy theories.
Musk accused the Biden administration of being lax on immigration enforcement as a part of a plot to seed Latino voters who will finally vote for the Democratic Social gathering all through the nation.
“The incentive is to maximize the number of illegals in the country, that is why the Biden administration was pushing to get as many illegals as possible and spend every dollar possible to—because every one of them is a customer,” Musk stated.
The idea that there’s a part of a plot to exchange white voters with Latino ones by immigration is a debunked right-wing conspiracy principle often known as “The Great Replacement.” The idea has made the rounds in extremist circles for many years and has been popularized in recent times by main Republicans like Trump and conservative retailers like Fox Information. The shooter who killed 23 folks at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2023 cited the Nice Alternative as justification for his act of mass homicide.
Musk additionally lied and stated that the Biden administration created the CBP One app utilized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to facilitate straightforward immigration.
Actually, CBP One was launched in 2020 underneath Trump and has been used to extra effectively course of migrants in search of asylum throughout the U.S. by scheduling appointments as a part of the immigration parole process, however it’s removed from a quick or straightforward course of. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have additionally promoted conspiracies associated to CBP One.
Musk claimed that the purported immigration actions pursued by Biden had been an act of “treason,” which is a criminal offense punishable by dying.
As Musk was selling his falsehoods on Thursday, it was revealed by a ProPublica report that Trump has supplied thousands and thousands of taxpayer {dollars} to fund DOGE’s actions whereas shielding the group from scrutiny, at the same time as they intrude in tax-funded authorities enterprise.
Voters have begun to confront Republicans in response to DOGE’s overreach. Georgia Rep. Wealthy McCormick was heckled at a city corridor assembly in his closely Republican district as voters there complained about Musk’s unaccountable “chainsaw” strategy.
In the meantime, DOGE reinstated staffer Marko Elez after he just lately resigned in response to reviews that he supported a “eugenic immigration policy.”
Trump has empowered Musk and DOGE and at CPAC he reveled in his new platform of energy and affect whereas doubling down on conspiracy and bigotry.