Elon Musk claims without evidence there’s 'half a trillion dollars’ of fraud in Social Security system
On his latest rant against the state of the USA, Elon Musk has spectacularly claimed there's $500,000,000,000 worth of fraud in the Social Security system.
The world's richest man has been tasked with cutting some $2 trillion from government spending, and while he originally admitted he didn't think it could be done, that hasn't stopped him from gutting whole departments.
Musk being deep in the trenches of the White House has caused plenty of controversy, and as well as Tesla stocks crashing, he's lost a jaw-dropping $29 billion in a single day.
Still, Musk told Fox Business' Larry Kudlow that he's going to continue doing what he's doing.
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In an all-encompassing interview, Musk suggested that a 'coordinated' cyberattack against X came from Ukraine, spoke out about reports of a gun being fired at a Tesla dealership in Oregon, and then fired his own shots at the entire Social Security system.
In one of the biggest takeaways, there are concerns that Musk is now taking his sharpened scissors to Medicare and Social Security. It comes as the Trump administration wants to make a $4.7 trillion tax cut.
Musk told Kudlow: "Most of the federal spending is in entitlements, so that's the big one to eliminate. That's the sort of half-trillion, maybe six, seven hundred billion a year."
He went on to say: "That's also a mechanism by which the Democrats attract and retain illegal immigrants, by essentially paying them to come here, and then turning them into voters."
Claiming that the Democrats are so upset by Musk's work with the Department of Government Efficiency, he thinks turning off this 'money magnet' will cause them to leave.
Referring to this half a trillion, Kudlow said: "It’s a huge number."
It's important to note that Musk doesn't point to any specific statistics, nor has it been clarified where he plucked the figure from.
Musk's estimates are far higher than those put forward by the Social Security’s inspector general, who previously highlighted $71.8 billion in potential fraudulent payments from the 2015 to 2022 fiscal years. This works out at under 1% of total benefits paid during that time.
This isn't the first time Musk has been questioned about his potential interference with Social Security.
He posted on X in February 2025 and said: "Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as ‘ALIVE’ when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem."
His claims were debunked by Lee Dudek, Social Security’s acting commissioner, who added: "The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits."
Sharing his concerns about what comes next, Rhode Island Democratic Representative Gabe Amo wrote: "Co-President Musk announces his desire to cut entitlements. To be very clear, the only things he could be talking about are Social Security and Medicare."
While the POTUS has vowed to protect Social Security, Musk has already closed some offices and spectacularly referred to it as "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time."