Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur and influential adviser to President Donald Trump, ignited a political firestorm Monday by suggesting the federal government could slash up to $700 billion in spending by targeting fraud and waste in entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
In a candid interview with Larry Kudlow of Fox Business Network at the White House, Musk claimed that federal entitlements are plagued by fraud and insisted this area of the budget should be the prime focus of cost-cutting efforts. “Most of the federal spending is entitlements,” Musk said. “That’s the big one to eliminate.”
Musk specifically estimated that between $500 billion and $700 billion in federal spending could be trimmed by aggressively pursuing fraud and inefficiencies. These numbers starkly contrast with official government assessments, including those from Social Security’s Inspector General, who previously cited only $71.8 billion in improper payments between fiscal years 2015 and 2022-representing less than 1% of total benefits disbursed.
Further fueling controversy, Musk repeated a widely debunked claim that Social Security databases list “20 million people who are definitely dead marked as alive.” Lee Dudek, Social Security’s acting commissioner, refuted this assertion, clarifying, “These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits.”
Democratic officials swiftly criticized Musk’s remarks, accusing him of openly advocating for cuts to popular benefit programs. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, responding on Musk’s own platform X, stated: “There were howls of protest and denial from the GOP any time we pointed out that Republicans want to cut Social Security. Now the most powerful official in the White House goes on TV and calls it ‘the big one to eliminate.'”
The White House defended Musk’s statements by clarifying his intent was specifically targeting fraud. Alex Pfeiffer, principal deputy communications director at the White House, pushed back against Buttigieg’s criticism on X, writing, “Pete Buttigieg is Ivy League educated and allegedly smart. So can he not hear Elon say ‘waste and fraud in entitlement spending’ or is he lying to you?”
