Billionaire and key Trump administration figure Elon Musk continued to spread claims of fraud in Social Security on Monday, while touting widespread federal spending cuts driven by his Department of Government Efficiency.
Speaking with Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow in an interview that aired Monday, Musk said DOGE has hired 100 people, with plans to expand and oversee nearly every government agency. Among the alleged fraud Musk is trying to sniff out, he repeatedly raised his concerns over the Social Security Administration.
“What we’re adding here is caring and competence,” he said in the interview. “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… those are fake social security numbers or they’ve stolen somebody else’s social security number. We’re trying to put a stop to all of that.”
The claims of widespread fraud were also echoed by President Donald Trump at his address to Congress last week, even as they have been widely debunked.
Musk has become a dominating, controversial figure in the first few weeks of Trump’s second administration. Democrats have warned against changes to the SSA, which provides benefits to 72.5 million people, including seniors, children and people with disabilities.
Here is what to know about Musk’s potential impact on social security.
Musk and Trump continue to say the SSA is providing benefits to people who are too old to be alive. Musk mentioned in his interview that the number of dead people in the database has risen from 17 million to 20 million.
While there are dead people in the database, it is not a new discovery nor does it indicate widespread fraud.
A 2023 audit by the SSA Office of the Inspector General found that 18.9 million Social Security number holders born in 1920 or earlier were not marked as deceased, due to technological changes. “Almost none” of those social security number holders were receiving payments, according to the report.
As of September 2015, the SSA began to automate terminating benefits once people reached age 115, according to the website.
Amid widespread layoffs and staffing cuts at several federal agencies, the SSA announced in February that a reorganization would result in “significant workforce reductions.”
The agency said it would aim to reduce its size by 7,000 employees from the current group of 57,000.
The deadline for the SSA to submit their layoff plans to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is Thursday. The agency expects staff reductions to come from retirements, buyouts and resignations, though layoffs may also be possible.
Some politicians, policy experts and consultants say the cuts could slow down benefit application processes at the agency, as previously reported by USA TODAY.
Musk has received pushback for trying to access sensitive data at agencies like the SSA and others. Democrats have drummed up concerns that Republicans are trying to cut SS benefits.
But the Trump administration has repeatedly sought to quell those concerns, saying that benefits will not be disrupted as Musk continues to investigate alleged fraud.
“I’m not going to touch Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. Now, we’re going to get fraud out of there,” Trump said Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” Everybody wants us to get the fraud out, and therefore you’ll make it better.”
This story has been updated with more information.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Medora Lee
Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com, and follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley.
