You have probably seen photos or read about Elon Musk brandishing a chainsaw at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference. I thought it might be interesting to look at that chainsaw.
It was given to him by the Argentinian President, Javier Milei, a politician with an academic background in Economics, who at the time of the convention was being investigated for market manipulation. Milei had promoted the cryptocoin $LIBRA on Musk’s X with a link to the site, driving its value up and then deleted his promotion causing a sudden crash. Just before the Musk’s appearance with Milei’s saw, Milei claimed to news agencies that he did that all “in good faith.” See Argentina’s President Milei denies crypto fraud allegations and Argentina president accused of fraud over crypto crash.
Musk’s chainsaw was a partial replica of the chainsaw made for Milei by an enterprising maker of custom machinery named “Tute” di Tella. See The tale behind Milei’s chainsaw gift for Elon Musk | Buenos Aires Times. Tute is selling this the Musk chainsaw now on Instagram where we can see closeups of it.
Musk’s chainsaw was a partial replica of the chainsaw made for Milei by an enterprising maker of custom machinery named “Tute” di Tella. See The tale behind Milei’s chainsaw gift for Elon Musk | Buenos Aires Times. Tute is selling this the Musk chainsaw now on Instagram where we can see closeups of it.
As you can see, Musk’s MT-598 is some standard chainsaw with aluminum roof flashings riveted on the plastic casing, some stickers and stencilings, and a medieval hatchet shape added at the base of the chain, all to jazz up a production chainsaw. Since Tute said that when he started his customizing business there were good Chinese production chainsaws but they lacked personality, one might think that under the aluminum flashings is a Chinese chainsaw.
Indeed, on Temu one can find dozens of 58 cc, 20-inch bar saws from 62$ to $120. Here is an image of one:
Change out the bar to a 24 incher (which I think Musk’s has and costs about $50 on Temu) and one has the Musk’s basic machine, far cheaper than a Husqvarna or Stihl.
What does this excursion tell us? 1) The chainsaw itself is a cheap marketing trick. 2) The trick is all about appearance and not substance, about camouflage and advertising. 3) It targets people interested in status. 4) The duplicity is visible close-up but not at a distance. 5) So, the shouting and staging is duplicitous. 6) Lots of people are in on the duplicity but they think it fun. 7) The fun is that duplicity is right in the open. 8) The chainsaw is rightly embraced by Musk and his followers at the convention as a symbol for what Musk is doing.
There is one more thing we can learn about the fun of open duplicity. Look at the motto emblazoned on bar. On Tute’s image on Instagram, the phrase is “¡VIVA LA LIBERTAD, CABRON!” That means “Long Live Freedom, Bastard!” But look at the photos from the convention. The phrase is in mirror image on Musk’s chainsaw. What is Tute’s message that Musk is so happy to brandish? I take it as “Kill Freedom, you bastard!” That is typical of Musk humor, like naming his kid X. Everything is an ironic visible in-joke. The trick is to fleece people and make them feel great about it.