The comments Elon Musk made beside President Donald Trump in the White House on Tuesday suggest that he’s lining up his next government waste target: Social Security, the nation’s largest retirement beneficiary program.
The Department of Government Efficiency has already taken steps to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. However, on the campaign trail, both Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly vowed to strengthen the popular retirement program for senior citizens.
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The president’s 2024 campaign website listed “fight for and protect social security and medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age” as point No. 14 on Trump’s “Agenda 47” for a second term in office, and Trump even proposed ending taxation of Social Security Benefits.
The Social Security Administration estimated that the program will reach insolvency and be unable to meet all of its routine scheduled payments within the next decade.
DOGE gained access to the SSA data systems last week following a takeover of the Treasury Department’s payment systems. Democrats introduced legislation seeking to block Musk and DOGE from continued access to the systems and “shield the American people from this out-of-control power grab permanently.”
The president told reporters last Friday that DOGE “doesn’t” necessarily need access to personal taxpayer information or Social Security numbers but suggested that DOGE’s ability to gain access shows the need to beef up the security of those systems.
“They get it very easily,” the president said. “We don’t have very good security in our country, and they get it very easily.”
Fast forward to Tuesday, when Trump signed a new executive order granting Musk and DOGE expanded authority to cut costs inside of federal agencies.
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Musk, who was present for the Oval Office signing ceremony, told reporters that an initial audit showed individuals beyond the age of any living American and individuals with no personal identifying information present on the beneficiary list.
“We’ve got people in there that are 150 years old. Now, do you know anyone 150? I don’t, OK,” he said. “They’re probably dead, is my guess, or they should be very famous, one of the two. And then there are a whole bunch of Social Security payments where there’s no identifying information.”
“Obviously, we want to make sure that people who deserve to receive Social Security do receive it and that they receive it quickly and accurately,” Musk continued.
The tech billionaire’s comments added new fuel to the legal and political firestorm of Musk’s influence over the federal government, which began protests throughout Washington, D.C.
The White House and DOGE did not respond to questions about the breadth of alleged benefits fraud uncovered by the administration’s audits.
Social Security paid out benefits to nearly 72 million people in 2023, including 5.8 million new beneficiaries. The administration’s inspector general published a report in 2024 outlining $71.8 billion in improper payments made between 2015-2022, which accounts for less than 1% of payments made across that time frame.
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Still, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that Trump’s economic platform could significantly move up the program’s insolvency date.
CRFB said Trump’s tax and tariff proposals and deportation agenda, as illegal immigrants are still subject to employer Social Security taxes, will “increase Social Security’s ten-year cash shortfall by $2.3 trillion” and “advance insolvency by three years.”
Democrats have sounded the alarm on possible cuts to the program amid DOGE’s quest to root out and eliminate government waste.
“Keep your hands off our Social Security because this has nothing — nothing — to do with government efficiency,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said at a rally outside of the SSA headquarters in Maryland on Monday.
“It is America’s promise to us when we paid into Social Security,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) added. “And yet this is under attack even today.”
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The White House has maintained that Trump has no plans to make overriding cuts to Social Security.
“The president remains committed to his promise not to touch [Social Security],” White House aides said in a statement responding to Monday’s rally. “Any work from DOGE is to find fraud, which they’ve successfully done.”