He even had a literal chainsaw.

As the crowd of several thousand cheered, Argentine President Javier Milei, also a favourite at the annual Cpac event, emerged from backstage. He handed Musk a shiny chainsaw with “viva la Libertad carajo! – Spanish for “Long live liberty, damn it!”- emblazoned on the blade.

Musk waved the power tool high, shouting: “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy! Chainsaw!”

It was a remarkable moment on a day typified by less animated speeches about the dangers of big government and the accomplishments of Trump’s first month back in the White House. It demonstrated how Musk is the only conservative who approaches Trump’s ability to energise a crowd.

Outside of Washington, however, there are signs that Musk’s chainsaw approach to federal government – which includes shuttering agencies, defunding programmes and mass civil service layoffs – may be cutting too close to the bone.

At about the same time as Musk was celebrating the work of his so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” at the event near Washington DC, Republican congressman Rich McCormick was holding a town hall forum for his constituents.

Many in Roswell, Georgia, were angry about the impact of the Musk-inspired cuts and let the congressman know it.

“Congress controls the budget, not the president,” a woman said. “You are doing a disservice to set that down and not stand up for us.”

McCormick’s response was drowned out by jeers.

“I understand trying to do more with less – that’s reasonable,” another constituent said. “What’s not reasonable is taking this chainsaw approach.”

Earlier this month, Pew Research found that 54% of Americans have an unfavourable view of Musk, including 37% that responded “very unfavourable”.

Only 23% of Americans told Reuters-Ipsos pollsters this week that the president has the right to fire “any federal employee who disagrees with the president”. Fifty-eight percent said they were concerned that popular government programmes, like Social Security retirement benefits for the elderly and subsidised student loans – could be affected.

Just over half of Americans in a CNN poll said Trump had gone “too far” in exercising his presidential power.

At an earlier event at Cpac on Thursday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson praised Musk and his team.

“They are exposing this massive fraud, waste and abuse that we have not been able to uncover because the deep state has hidden it from us,” he said.

Many Republicans have agreed with this sentiment, even if it means ceding congressional power over government spending to the president. Congressional conservatives have been trying to downsize the federal government for decades with limited effectiveness – and now Musk and Trump are delivering, albeit through a sweeping expansion of executive power.

North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis told CBS News he believed Doge’s approach was necessary because Republicans had failed to get legitimate answers from bureaucrats about how to make government more efficient.

“And the way to force people to justify investments on exceptions is to shut everything down,” Tillis said. “I know it’s disruptive, but I think they need to have the capacity to bring things back online that make sense.”

That may change, however, if Trump’s poll numbers – which have dipped slightly recently – continue to decline and if Republican legislators are challenged by constituents at town hall meetings or have their offices flooded with angry calls.

Members of Congress across the US have begun stepping forward to defend federal programmes – including funding for academic research, agriculture, veterans services and national parks – that have been affected by Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” actions.

Senator Katie Britt of Alabama called for a “smart, targeted approach” to cuts that could target health research conducted in her home state. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican, complained on social media that many of the proposed layoffs “will do more harm than good”.

“I share the administration’s goal of reducing the size of the federal government,” she wrote on X, “but this approach is bringing confusion, anxiety and now trauma to our civil servants.”

The Trump administration has already walked back some of its announced layoffs in key sectors – including Department of Energy employees who handle nuclear weapons security, Department of Agriculture teams tasked with containing the recent outbreak of bird flu, and workers in a programme that monitors the health of first responders and survivors of the 11 September World Trade Center attack.

“I think many of these firings are indiscriminate,” said Susan Collins of Maine, another centrist Republican senator. “The fact that workers were let go who are working on avian flu, and the fact that workers have also been fired who are responsible for nuclear safety, shows that we need a far more careful approach.”

At his appearance last week at the White House, Musk acknowledged that his team might make mistakes in its eagerness to slash government spending – “but we will act quickly to correct any mistakes”, he promised.

That may be cold comfort for Americans adversely affected by the Doge chainsaw, however.

And it could come at a political price.

History has shown that even when mistakes are fixed, voters often remember these kind of missteps the next time they head to the polls.

The cryptocoin $Libra quickly rose in value before nosediving, causing severe losses for the majority of people who had invested in it.

A judge will now determine if the president should face fraud charges over the incident.

On Monday, Milei said he had acted “in good faith” and dismissed investors’ complaints, comparing their actions to people who gamble: “If you go to a casino and lose money, what’s there to complain about when you knew the risks?”

President Milei spoke about the $Libra incident in an interview with Argentine TV channel Todo Noticias on Monday, after a weekend during which he had stayed unusually quiet on social media.

He insisted that his post on X, which contained a link to a site selling $Libra, did not constitute an endorsement.

“I didn’t promote it, I merely shared it,” he told Todo Noticias’ Jonny Viale.

Milei’s post, which he deleted after just a few hours, drew heavy criticism not just from his political rivals in Argentina but also from those who had invested in the cryptocurrency.

Some have argued the $Libra launch resembled a “rug pull” – where promoters draw in buyers, only to stop trading activity and make off with the money raised from sales.

The presidential office insisted that Milei was in no way involved in the development of $Libra and announced that the Anti-Corruption Office would determine if the president had acted improperly.

Milei himself defended deleting his post, saying that at the time he did not know “the details of the project and after learning about it, I decided not to continue promoting it”.

Opposition politicians, however, have not been placated by the statements, threatening to start impeachment proceedings against Milei.

While political analysts point out that the opposition is unlikely to get the votes needed for an impeachment trial to go ahead, the scandal threatens to divert Milei’s attention away from his radical reform agenda.

A federal judge has been tasked with deciding whether fraud allegations brought against the president by a number of plaintiffs should go ahead.

In his TV interview, Milei appeared combative, stressing that he had “nothing to hide”.

He also said that those who had invested in $Libra had done so “voluntarily” and knew of the risks.

“It’s like playing Russian roulette and getting the bullet.”

Milei posted on X, formerly Twitter, about the $LIBRA coin on Friday, which he said would help fund small businesses and start-ups.

He shared a link to buy it, causing its price to shoot up. But within a few hours, he deleted his post and the cryptocurrency nosedived in value, losing investors most of their money.

Some opposition members of Congress say they plan to start proceedings to impeach Milei. Meanwhile, lawyers filed complaints of fraud in Argentina’s criminal court on Sunday.

Some people online have accused Milei of what is known as a “rug pull” – where promoters of a cryptocurrency draw in buyers, only to stop trading activity and make off with the money raised from sales. They pointed out that the link used to buy the coins referenced a phrase the president uses in his speeches.

But Argentina’s presidential office said on Saturday that the decision to remove the post was to avoid “speculation” following public reaction to the launch of the cryptocurrency.

It said Milei was not involved in the cryptocurrency’s development, and that the government’s Anti-Corruption Office would investigate and determine whether anyone had acted improperly, including the president himself.

Jonatan Baldiviezo, one of the plaintiffs who filed the legal action, told Associated Press “the crime of fraud was committed, in which the president’s actions were essential”.

Milei’s political opponents have jumped on the opportunity.

Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is now in opposition, was heavily critical, calling him a “crypto scammer” in a post seen 6.4 million times.

For its part, the country’s main opposition coalition said it would file a request to impeach the president, calling it an “unprecedented scandal“.

Esteban Paulón, a member of the opposition Socialist Party, said in a post on X that he would also request the start of impeachment proceedings.

A spokesman for President Milei said the decision to exit the WHO was triggered by “deep differences regarding health management especially during the [Covid-19] pandemic”.

The announcement comes just over two weeks after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing from the international health body.

The two leaders have expressed admiration for each other, with Milei calling Trump’s re-election the “greatest political comeback in history”, while the US president described his Argentine counterpart as “my favourite president”.

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In an official statement, the Argentine presidential office said that “the WHO was created in 1948 to co-ordinate the response to global health emergencies, but it failed during the biggest challenge: it advocated eternal lockdowns without scientific backing during its battle against the Covid-19 pandemic”.

The statement also argues that “today, evidence suggests that the WHO’s prescriptions don’t work because they are the result of political influence rather than being based on science”.

Argentine media say they expect President Milei to sign an executive order in the coming days which will begin the process of Argentina pulling out from the WHO.

Speaking at a news conference, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said that “we Argentines are not going to allow an international body to interfere with our sovereignty, and even less with our health”.

The spokesman argued that an exit from the WHO would provide Argentina with more flexibility to implement policies tailored to its own interests and to administer its funds as it saw fit.

He said membership of the WHO cost Argentina about $10m (£8m) annually.

President Milei, who describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist”, has been critical of the WHO for some time but the idea of leaving the body appears to have gained traction in the days after Donald Trump signed an executive order setting in motion the US’s exit from the international body.

The two heads of state appear to share mutual admiration for each other.

Javier Milei was the first foreign leader to meet Trump after his election victory on 5 November.

Speaking at a gala at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on the night of their meeting, Milei said that “the winds of freedom [were] blowing much stronger since Trump’s victory”.

Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether President Milei was planning to withdraw from other international bodies or treaties, the presidential spokesman refused to rule out anything.

“The president is very determined when it comes to making Argentina freer, so any link that Argentina has with bodies that go against its freedoms, we’re going to do our utmost to prevent them from interfering in the lives of Argentines.”

Environmental activists in Argentina say they fear that Milei will follow in Trump’s footsteps and also set the wheels in motion to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement – the international treaty which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Milei’s sister Karina also received citizenship, ANSA reported on Saturday, which said the applications were fast-tracked by Rome.

Riccardo Magi, a lawmaker from the opposition party +Europa, condemned the decision, calling it “intolerable discrimination” against young Italians who will face years of bureaucracy to obtain citizenship.

“Millions of Italians born in Italy, raised here, who studied, worked, and pay taxes in this country – unlike President Milei – will face an arduous journey to gain citizenship,” Magi said in a video posted on social media.

Current law requires foreigners to live in Italy for 10 years before applying for citizenship, and even children born in Italy to foreign parents must wait until they turn 18 to apply.

While groups like Oxfam Italia have pushed for a reduction in the waiting period to align with other EU countries, like France and Germany, far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has firmly opposed such changes.

Meloni met Milei during a state visit on Friday. The 54-year-old libertarian Argentinian leader also joined Meloni at the Atreju Festival, a right-wing youth event in Rome organised by her Brothers of Italy party.

The two leaders have forged a strong bond due to their ideological similarities.

Last month, Meloni presented Milei with a figurine of him wielding a chainsaw, referencing his 2023 campaign, in which he famously used a chainsaw to signal his intention to reduce the size of government.

Milei is not the first Argentinian president to hold dual Italian citizenship.Mauricio Macri, who served as Argentina’s president from 2015 to 2019, also had an Italian passport.