Musk Escalates Offensive Against Social Security, Claims There Are 20 Million People 'Who Are Definitely Dead Marked As Alive'

Elon Musk described federal benefit programs as being widespread with fraud on Monday, hinting that they may soon be on the chopping block, as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues its mission to shrink the size of government.

The billionaire entrepreneur, who is advising President Donald Trump and often calls himself "first buddy," suggested that $500 billion to $700 billion in waste needed to be cut.

"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, who is the richest person in the world, said on Monday in an interview with Fox Business' Larry Kudlow. Musk's comments came in response to a question from Kudlow about whether there would be a report on targeting waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending.

Musk's estimate for the level of fraud in entitlements far outpaces figures from watchdogs like Social Security's inspector general, who previously said there was $71.8 billion in improper payments from fiscal years 2015 through 2022. That's less than 1% of benefits paid out during that time period, according to The Associated Press.

The billionaire also said there were "20 million people who are definitely dead marked as alive in the Social Security database." However, the leader of the agency has rejected claims about widespread payments to dead people.

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 aged 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, CNN reports.

"The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits," Dudek said.

Musk's comment contradicts 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 the GOP 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.

Musk's comments also come as labor unions are asking a federal court for an emergency order to stop him from accessing Social Security data for millions of Americans. The motion was filed late Friday in a federal court in Maryland by the legal services group Democracy Forward. Karianne Jones, a lawyer for the unions, said that the lack of clarity of the information in Musk's possession means the potential impact for citizens could be "huge."

"Essentially what you have is DOGE just swooping in and bullying their way into access to millions of Americans' private data. They cannot explain why they want this data. They can't really tell you what data they want. They just want everything. They want the source code, and they want to do it without any restrictions," she said.