MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” panelists believe Elon Musk just gave Democrats the perfect image to combat him with. Joe Scarborough revealed as much Friday morning while discussing Musk’s decision Thursday to pose with and brandish a chainsaw at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
“Democrats just have to be over the moon right now [that] they’ve got their image of Elon Musk. He’s got the chainsaw held up in the air, and a split screen there and on the other side you have medical research being slashed, workers being cut from the NIH,” Scarborough said. “All of this is going on, and it looks like Democrats are finally being given some issues that they can really start to work on.”
“If he knew the history of our politics, he would know that brandishing a chainsaw at CPAC is very popular among a very small part of the Republican Party. Brandishing a chainsaw at CPAC is also very popular among a lot of Democrats, who will use that in campaign ads going forward,” agreed “Morning Joe” guest and NBC News national affairs analyst John Heilemann. “You live by the chainsaw, die by the chainsaw. That is a guy who does not know … what kind of damage those kinds of images could do politically to a party.”
Musk’s CPAC appearance comes at a time when he and President Trump are facing increasing scrutiny over their haphazard approach to reducing federal spending. Peter Baker, the New York Times’ chief White House correspondent, told Scarborough on Friday he believes Musk’s CPAC stunt will only cause even more fractures to form among both Trump’s everyday supporters and his political allies within the Republican Party.
“There is a legitimate and important debate to have about the size of government,” Baker noted. “That’s not what’s happening here. We’re not having a thoughtful debate about the size of government and where things make sense and where they don’t. We’re just seeing, as [Musk] shows with that image at CPAC, [him] taking a chainsaw to it.”
“That’s appealing on some level to a lot of MAGA Republicans. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who voted for Trump who do think the government needs to be reined in but don’t like, as [some] constituents [have] said, ‘A sloppy haphazard approach,’” he continued. “Now, a lot of republicans [also] say, ‘Look, we’ve tried having that over the years, [it] didn’t work, so let’s give this a shot, see what happens.’ But the political cost could eventually backlash on Trump and Elon Musk.”
Heilemann, meanwhile, believes Musk’s recent stunt could mark a turning of the tide for Democrats in their fight against him and Trump. “Everyone who’s been freaking out about what’s been happening here, they’re right to freak out,” the NBC News analyst remarked. “But to everything there’s a season and … the seasons are about to start changing on Trump and Elon Musk.”
