Elon Musk could not believe the amount of waste, fraud, and abuse DOGE uncovered in Social Security

It’s the federal government’s largest spending category.

Elon Musk recently called it “the biggest fraud in history.”

And this is why Elon Musk could not believe the amount of waste, fraud, and abuse DOGE uncovered in Social Security.

Draining the Swamp

Joe Biden left Donald Trump a big mess to clean up over the next four years.

There’s the border crisis and the millions of illegal aliens Joe Biden allowed into the United States, the high crime rates in Democrat-led cities, the weakened military, the Left’s woke ideology, the censorship regime, the war on free speech, and many other problems Joe Biden left behind for Donald Trump.

Donald Trump went to work cleaning up the mess on his first day in office with dozens of executive actions that reversed Biden’s policies and fulfilled many of his campaign promises.

But there’s a massive problem that flew under the radar of most Americans before Elon Musk and his team of “high IQ” engineers at DOGE sounded the alarm about it.

And that is the massive amount of waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal bureaucracy.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant 

Donald Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on his first day in office and put Elon Musk in charge of it.

Trump tasked DOGE with finding waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer money for him to cut.

Within a couple of weeks, DOGE had already terminated hundreds of millions of dollars worth of DEI contracts and saved taxpayers billions of dollars.

According to the site DOGE Count, DOGE has found more than $24,407,278,122 worth of waste to cut.

DOGE canceled $1 billion in federal DEI contracts, closed down the USAID, took control of the Office of Personnel Management, and slashed the General Services Administration’s budget by 50%.

Americans were shocked and horrified by some of the expenditures uncovered by DOGE.

“$10 million for circumcisions in Mozambique, $25 million for biodiversity in Colombia, $9.7M for UC Berkeley to develop ‘a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills’, $40M for ‘gender equality and women empowerment hub,’” and many other outrageous expenditures.

US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all which have been cancelled:
– $10M for “Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcision”
– $9.7M for UC Berkeley to develop “a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills”
– $2.3M for “strengthening…

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 15, 2025

On Wednesday, the Treasury Department reported that DOGE helped them “identify waste, fraud & abuse.” 

“In connection to the effort, the IRS rescinded a previously planned $1.9 Billion contract & has committed itself to be focused & intentional with taxpayer dollars,” they wrote.

Alongside @DOGE, we have been working to identify waste, fraud & abuse. In connection to the effort, the IRS rescinded a previously planned $1.9 Billion contract & has committed itself to be focused & intentional with taxpayer dollars.

— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) February 19, 2025

But what DOGE uncovered in the Social Security administration has many Americans still shaking their heads in disbelief.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “President Trump has directed Elon Musk and the DOGE team to identify fraud at the Social Security Administration.”

“They suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people receiving fraudulent Social Security payments,” she said.

Karoline Leavitt:

“President Trump has directed Elon Musk & the DOGE team to identify fraud at the Social Security Administration… They suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people receiving fraudulent Social Security payments.” pic.twitter.com/5poOD8AI5v

— DOGE NEWS- Department of Government Efficiency (@realdogeusa) February 19, 2025

America is over $36 trillion in debt.

Social Security is the largest spending category in the entire federal government, followed by Medicare and National Defense.

It supports over 70 million Americans and accounts for 21% of the $1.5 trillion annual budget.

Last year, Social Security doled out more than $1.4 trillion in benefits to 68 million people.

But Social Security is an outdated system designed for a previous era.

It’s spiraling toward insolvency, as Social Security has been paying out more than it takes in since 2021.

The latest projections show the Social Security trust fund will run dry in 2033.

Exposing the rot

Elon Musk and his team of DOGE found the massive waste, fraud, and abuse within the Social Security administration that Trump expected.

During a press conference in the Oval Office, Musk said they did a “cursory examination of Social Security, and we got people in there that are 150 years old.” 

“Now, do you know anyone that’s 150?” Musk said. 

“I don’t know, they should be in the Guinness Book of World Records,” he continued. “So, that’s a case where I think they’re probably dead.”

Musk posted a chart showing more than 20 million people over 100 years old are listed in “the Social Security database.”

According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!

Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/ltb06VX98Z

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025

Musk said it may be the “biggest fraud in history.”

“Yes, there are FAR more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA,” he wrote. “This might be the biggest fraud in history.”

Yes, there are FAR more “eligible” social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA.

This might be the biggest fraud in history.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025

Donald Trump Jr. was floored by the amount of abuse within the Social Security administration.

“OMG!!! It’s so bad what’s been happening to our country and your money!” he wrote on X.

OMG!!! It’s so bad what’s been happening to our country and your money!

Breaking: Musk says there’s people over 150-years-old collecting Social Security

“I think they’re probably dead, is my guess, or they should be very famous, one of the two.”@DOGE
pic.twitter.com/GiBijvUowu

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 11, 2025

Of course, Democrats, the media, and federal bureaucrats are furious over DOGE auditing the Social Security administration.

Michelle King served as Acting Commissioner for the past 30 years.

However, she resigned after DOGE gained control of the system and began exposing the rampant fraud.

Now a social security fraud expert who King previously tried to fire has been elevated as the new head of the agency.

“At 4:30pm, Leland Dudek’s boss put him on leave for helping DOGE find fraud,” Luke Rosiak wrote on X. “Within hours, it was his boss who was fired, and the longtime SSA waste-watcher was elevated to lead the whole agency.”

At 4:30pm, Leland Dudek’s boss put him on leave for helping DOGE find fraud. “They want to fire me,” he wrote. “I confess. I helped DOGE understand SSA.”

Within hours, it was his boss who was fired, and the longtime SSA waste-watcher was elevated to lead the whole agency. pic.twitter.com/q6DcczSDaR

— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) February 19, 2025

Many Americans are wondering why Democrats are so upset about DOGE exposing and getting rid of fraud and waste within the massive and previously unaccountable federal bureaucracy.

But Elon Musk provided the answer to this question in a post on X.

“The REAL reason so many Democrats are upset about entitlements (social security, medical, etc) fraud investigations is that they are using your taxpayer money as handouts to attract and retain ILLEGAL immigrants,” he wrote. 

“Their future voters,” he continued. “That’s what it’s all about.”

“Truth,” he added.

The REAL reason so many Democrats are upset about entitlements (social security, medical, etc) fraud investigations is that they are using your taxpayer money as handouts to attract and retain ILLEGAL immigrants. Their future voters.

That’s what it’s all about.

Truth.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025

The reality is that everyone has known for years that Social Security is ripe for abuse and fraud.

MSNBC was forced to admit that an Inspector General’s investigation into Social Security payments last year found $72 billion in improper payments over eight years.

That’s nearly $10 billion worth of waste a year without even a real audit.

$72 billion in improper payments from the Social Security Administration over the last 8 years.

This is all without even an audit. I’m glad Elon Musk is cleaning house, imagine what else we will find! pic.twitter.com/1CKaCZHh0b

— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) February 18, 2025

Democrats and the Left are panicking because they depend on taxpayers to live.

They’re pushing out the fear narrative as usual in an effort to get Trump to back off the audit.

“Keep your hands off our Social Security, because this has nothing, nothing to do with government efficiency,” Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said at a rally outside the Social Security Administration’s headquarters in Maryland. “Over the last 21 days, we have seen Elon Musk conducting illegal raids on federal agencies with his DOGE crew.”

Trump has repeatedly said Social Security payments to those who deserve them won’t be cut.

“Social Security will not be touched, it will only be strengthened,” Trump said during a news conference when asked if there are any limits placed on what Musk can examine.

But Democrats don’t care about the truth.

All they care about is keeping the taxpayer funded gravy trains running at full speed in the Swamp.

24/7’s Focus Group members sound off

Focus Group members voted and 67% overwhelmingly chose “Social Security’s waste, fraud, and abuse” as the topic for our Featured Story this week!

We asked them to let us know what concerns they had about Social Security waste, fraud, and abuse after paying into it throughout their careers.

James S. wrote in to say he thought “the [Social Security] system needs to be audited and upgraded.”

Charles B. expressed how many Americans feel when he wrote, “My Biggest concern about the Waste fraud and abuse in [Social Security] is I’ve paid into it my entire life, as have many millions of other people, yet this ‘nest egg’ that so many of us planned to tap near the end of our lives is suddenly going broke. with many causes including, but not limited to, all the stuff so far shown by DOGE draining it. The years ago moving [Social Security] into the ‘general fund’ of government spending instead of keeping it as a stand alone fund FOR those who paid into it.  And many others who ‘borrowed’ from it and never ‘repaid’ the fund.”

John H. added that it’s “very troubling to hear recently from DOGE about the number of persons over 100 still on the Social Security rolls.  I am 82 and don’t think I’ll be drawing until over 100. Media usually spotlights over 100 citizens so where are articles giving us their secrets to such long life?”

Gary U. suggested, “If there are a lot of people on the SS rolls that are there fraudulently, remove them. That ought to free up a lot of money to those who are on the rolls legally.”

Sharon M. exclaimed, “We are paying dead people! We had a cost of living increase that wasn’t even 1/4 of what the raise should have been just to keep us where we should be when the cost of living went sky high . . . so we got a tiny cost of living raise . . . and guess what??? They took almost the entire raise to pay Medicare premiums!! The value of the payments we receive is reduced and we fall further behind!”

Likewise, Patricia B said, “People have worked for 50 plus years and paid in hundreds of thousands of dollars to only get back a pittance.  If we get a raise in Social Security it is taken away by increasing Medicare. We can’t win for losing. […] Social Security needs to be audited and adjusted to where people get enough to live on. Elon Musk is doing a great job. Let him do it and help the American people.”

Hal O. summed up the thoughts of many by adding, “It seems so appropriate to say that EVERYTHING our federal government gets involved in is flooded by WASTE, FRAUD, and ABUSE. That goes for everything. So to narrow it down to Social Security, let’s just say that I would have been even more surprised if there were NO irregularities in our ‘Retirement’ entitlement. It must be remembered that Social Security is a social program, not an investment opportunity. Besides it is NOT optional, and a large amount of the monies paid in have been taken out and replaced with federal IOUs. The other downside is that the number of earners paying into the system has decreased as the number of those taking out has increased. All that has been known for years, but now we are being told that waste, fraud, and abuse has been rampant in the system for decades.  Introducing these calamities into an already overloaded system spells real problems for future payees. Even if we were able to stop and remove all the bad acts flooding the system, there will still be a reckoning facing younger workers. Therefore, it’s time for some major changes to the entire Social Security system, if we hope to save it for future retirees.”

Editor’s Note: We appreciate hearing from all the 24/7 Focus Group Members who participated in choosing this week’s Feature Story and submitted their thoughts on it!

Would you like to be a part of 24/7’s “Choose the News” Focus Group? Just take a moment to fill out the form below and you can have a say in choosing next week’s Featured Story and “Sound Off” about it when it’s chosen. You may even find your response included in our next story!

What do you think about the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse Elon Musk and DOGE have exposed at Social Security? Let us know by replying back to our email newsletter or by sending an email to [email protected]!