Elon Musk’s chaotic CPAC appearance has viewers Googling ‘is he on drugs?’
Elon Musk leaves the stage holding a chainsaw after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on February 20 (Getty)
Trump’s “first buddy” Elon Musk made a lively, chaotic and unpredictable appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday (20 February), which caused Google searches for the phrase “is Elon Musk on drugs?” to spike the following day.
Taking to the stage on the second day of the right-wing event, which also featured a controversial speech by Steve Bannon in which he appeared to make a Nazi-style salute, Elon Musk was immediately presented with a jewel-encrusted chainsaw by Argentinian president Javier Milei and began waving it around.
Musk then sat down to discuss a range of topics with Newsmax host Rob Schmitt, who asked him what it was like “inside the mind of a genius.” Musk replied: “My mind is a storm, so… it’s a storm.”
After that, the conversation turned to the topic of space, namely, the astronauts (Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore) who are currently stranded at the International Space Station, with Musk stating that he “absolutely” believes Biden abandoned the astronauts intentionally: a claim that has been rubbished by former ISS commander European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, amongst others.
During another part of the half-hour long interview, Musk said that the left wanted to make comedy illegal, adding: “You know, you can’t make fun of anything. So this is, like, comedy suuuuuucks. It’s like, nothing’s funny. You can’t make fun of anything. It’s like, LEGALIZE COMEDY! YEEEAH! Legalize comedy!”
You can read the full transcript of the Q&A here.
Many viewers took to X, the social media platform owned by Musk, to comment on the at-times rambling interview, with several people saying they couldn’t understand what the SpaceX boss was saying. Another, Aaron Rupar, shared a clip of part of the Q&A, writing: “Elon can barely form a sentence right now.”
listen to this. Elon can barely form a sentence right now. pic.twitter.com/u9Su0gbKZN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 20, 2025
The top reply under Rupar’s tweet is currently a reference to being in a “K-hole”, essentially, a state of intoxication and disassociation associated with the use of the anaesthetic drug ketamine. Several other tweets also suggest Musk was under the influence of ketamine during his CPAC appearance, while others questioned his decision to wear sunglasses indoors.
One person tweeted: “Why is @elonmusk wearing sunglasses? What might have caused his eyes to be hypersensitised to light? Suggestions from medical types, please.”
According to experts, the drug ketamine can make people feel dream-like, detached, relaxed and happy, but it can also stop people from being able to move properly and from making sense. Other side-effects include a distorted sense of time, space, and reality, hallucinations, and sensitivity to light or sound.
Elon Musk has publicly and openly spoken about the fact he uses ketamine to treat depression in the past.
A prescription version of ketamine called esketamine (Spravato) was approved in 2019 by the FDA for treatment-resistant depression. Guidelines require its use “under the supervision of a health care provider in a certified doctor’s office or clinic.”
Elon Musk strongly denies that he’s ever misused the medication.
In March 2024, he discussed his use of ketamine with journalist Don Lemon, saying: “There are times when I have sort of a … negative chemical state in my brain, like depression I guess, or depression that’s not linked to any negative news, and ketamine is helpful for getting one out of the negative frame of mind.”
He added that he has a prescription for the drug from “an actual, real doctor” and uses “a small amount once every other week or something like that.”
Elon Musk insisted he doesn’t take too much at once, saying, “if you use too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done. I have a lot of work, I’m typically putting in 16-hour days … so I don’t really have a situation where I can be not mentally acute for an extended period of time.”
Musk also claimed that his ketamine use was in investors’ best interests: “From a standpoint of Wall Street, what matters is execution. Are you building value for investors? Tesla is worth about as much as the rest of the car industry combined… from an investor standpoint, if there is something I’m taking, I should keep taking it.”
The 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will run until February 22, 2025.
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