Elon Musk said entitlement spending is “the big one to eliminate,” and Democrats are seizing on his comments to warn that the Trump administration plans to trim benefits in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Mr. Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, acknowledged the cloud hanging over his aggressive push to cut waste, fraud and abuse from the federal government: the imbalance between the government’s entitlement promises and the funds it will have available to pay for them.
“The waste and fraud in entitlement spending – which most of the federal spending is entitlements – so that is like the big one to eliminate because that is sort of half trillion, maybe $600, $700 billion a year,” Mr. Musk said during an appearance on the Fox Business Network on Monday night.
In 2024, the federal government spent nearly $3 trillion on the big three entitlements: $1.4 trillion on Social Security, $870 billion on Medicare and $618 billion on Medicaid.
President Trump has repeatedly vowed not to cut those programs — the biggest drivers of federal spending that analysts say must be curtailed to deal with annual deficits and the soaring debt.
However, Mr. Musk’s garbled comments gave Democrats an opening to make the case that he and Mr. Trump plan to strip away entitlement benefits to help offset the loss of federal revenue that will come from giving tax breaks to the rich.
“When you hear Elon Musk and Donald Trump, take them at their word,” said Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee. “They believe Medicare and Social Security are entitlements. They are not. They are earned benefits that hard-working people have paid for.”
“Democrats will continue to fight to protect these programs from Trump and Musk’s disastrous ’DOGE’ plans,” Mr. Larson said.
The White House countered with a “fact check” that blamed the media for misconstruing Mr. Musk’s comments.
“The Trump administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits,” the statement said, citing watchdog reports identifying waste in the current programs. “What kind of person doesn’t support eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in government spending that ultimately costs taxpayers more?”
Rep. Mark Alford, Missouri Republican, also defended Mr. Musk, saying he is a “brainiac with an IQ that I cannot even fathom.”
“He is not a master-of-artful-language person like politicians and news anchors,” Mr. Alford said on CNN News Central. “I think when he talks about elimination, I think we’re talking about eliminating the waste, abuse and fraud.”
Mr. Alford said the idea that Republicans are going to “eliminate” entitlement programs is “sheer nonsense.”
Budget hawks question how Mr. Trump plans to fulfill his promise to balance the federal budget without touching entitlement spending.
Mr. Musk and DOGE are seeking to cut $1 trillion in federal spending. As part of it, they have targeted the waste and fraud in the current Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The Government Accountability Office has said that from 2018 to 2022, the federal government lost between $233 billion and $521 billion per year to fraud, and that improper payments since 2003 have been an estimated $2.8 trillion.
Mr. Musk said Democrats have pushed back against DOGE’s efforts because they see the wasteful spending in the current entitlement programs as a way to pay illegal immigrants and turn them into supporters.
“This is why Democrats are so upset about the situation,” he said on the Fox Business Network. “If we turn off this gigantic money magnet for illegal immigrants, then they will leave and they will lose voters.”
