NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — When tech billionaire Elon Musk took the stage for his surprise appearance at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference early Thursday evening, he was greeted with a hero’s welcome, complete with a gilded chainsaw gifted to him by Argentine President Javier Milei.
But even as attendees and speakers at the annual right-wing political convention embraced Musk, who has transformed from a self-described center-left-leaning Silicon Valley CEO to a key player in the second Trump administration, they remained skeptical of the tech industry writ large. Some called for congressional crackdowns and demanded accountability from the industry, while a smaller subset were hopeful that President Donald Trump’s return to the White House could herald an evolving mindset among tech leaders.
As technology companies, which have often aligned more closely with Democrats, adjust to the reality of a new Trump term, some figures have taken steps to ingratiate themselves with the Trump administration. But it was evident throughout CPAC that Republicans might not be quite ready to forgive and forget — and some members of the party are still looking for payback.
