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Elon Musk on Monday highlighted the cost of federal spending on entitlement programs, the latest sign of the tech billionaire and presidential adviser’s focus to downsize the federal government amid fears of cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
“Most of the federal spending is entitlements. So that’s the big one to eliminate. That’s the sort of half trillion, maybe six, 700 billion,” Musk said on Monday in an interview with Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow.
Amid opponents suggesting Musk’s interview is a major sign the administration will target social security, President Donald Trump’s communications team defended Musk’s comments, saying in a Tuesday morning X post, “Lying hacks. He was talking about waste, fraud, and abuse — of which there is $500+ billion every year.”
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO questioned federal entitlements in his interview, particularly the number of people benefiting from social security and Small Business Administration loans.
“The president’s gone through a long list of absurd things. Why are there 20 million people who are definitely dead marked as alive in the social security database? Why were hundreds of millions of dollars of Small Business Administration loans were given out to people aged 11 and under, according to the Social Security?” Musk questioned.
Trump repeated a similar false claim during his speech to a joint session of Congress last week, where he said 4.7 million people who are at least 100 years old are still listed in the Social Security Administration’s database and that “money is being paid to many of them.”
Public data from the Social Security Administration shows that about 89,000 people age 99 or over were receiving Social Security benefits in December 2024. The acting commissioner of the SSA, Leland Dudek, tried to set the record straight in a February statement.
“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,” Dudek said.
Musk continued to justify cuts as he said they’re trying to put a stop to “stolen” and “fake” social security numbers.
“There’s a massive amount of fraud, of basically people submitting social security numbers for Social Security benefits, unemployment, Small Business Administration loans and medical, where those are fake Social Security numbers or they’ve stolen somebody else’s social security number,” Musk said in his Monday interview.
Musk’s comments contradict top GOP leaders’ vows to keep Social Security benefits for Americans. Trump has repeatedly promised not to touch Social Security benefits, while House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed last month that Republicans will not make cuts to Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security as they work to pass – and pay for – Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda.
“The White House has made a commitment. The president said over and over and over, ‘We’re not going to touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.’ We’ve made the same commitment. Now that said, what we are going to do is go into those programs and carve out the fraud, waste and abuse, and find efficiencies,” Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on“The Source” in February.
The Social Security Administration has gone through its own restructuring in recent weeks. Calling its workforce “bloated,” the SSA announced plans last month to slash about 7,000 jobs, or roughly 12% of its staff. The potential cuts are part of a larger reorganization at the agency in line with the Trump administration’s drive to downsize the federal government.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
