White House officials on Tuesday reiterated allegations of “waste and fraud” in entitlement programs after Elon Musk suggested his U.S. DOGE Service may seek to slash the programs’ spending, as the administration sought to reassure the public that no cuts will be made to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits.
Discussing his efforts to cut federal spending, Musk suggested that “waste and fraud” in the programs is “the big one to eliminate” during a Fox Business interview Monday. Musk estimated that “half-trillion, maybe six, 700 billion a year” could be saved through eliminating the waste and fraud he claims exists in entitlement spending.
The programs cost more than $2.9 trillion in fiscal 2024, meaning Musk is suggesting that up to 24 percent of their budget is fraud and waste. That figure is much higher than what has been identified by watchdogs.
Advertisement
The Trump administration has already labeled vast amounts of government spending as waste or fraud in justifying its sweeping cuts to the federal government. Some DOGE cuts, such as the firing of workers who maintain the United States’ nuclear weapons, have already been reversed.
Democrats seized on Musk’s remarks, expressing concern about whether the administration could cut benefits in its cost-slashing effort. More than 130 million Americans receive benefits from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
“Musk said the quiet part out loud: he’s going after your Social Security and Medicare. Period,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) said on social media.
On Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Musk was only referring to cutting “the waste and the fraud and the abuse that does exist in these programs,” alleging that the “mainstream media has taken Mr. Musk out of context.”
Leavitt’s remarks came a few hours after the White House released a document similarly defending Musk, pointing to Trump’s past promises to preserve benefits and underscoring that cutting would only target the alleged waste and fraud. The administration also issued a stream of social media posts calling Musk’s critics liars.
Musk has previously attacked Social Security, calling it a “Ponzi scheme” and reposting a meme calling people who receive federal benefits “the Parasite Class.”
Pressed on how Musk arrived at his suggestion that there could be $700 billion in fraud in the entitlement programs, Leavitt pointed to ongoing efforts by Musk and DOGE to review agency spending. “It’s an estimate based on what he’s seen. He’s not saying definitively,” she told reporters.
Advertisement
On social media, the administration pointed to an estimate from the Government Accountability Office that found fraudulent spending across the government represents between $233 billion and $521 billion annually or more, but that figure is government-wide, not for the three programs.
Government auditors have previously found that about $10 billion in improper Social Security payments are made per year on average, accounting for less than 1 percent of benefit payments, and about $100 billion in payment errors were made in Medicare and Medicaid in 2023. Those numbers don’t encompass other types of fraud found through government investigations.
Recent moves by DOGE and in Congress have increased alarm among advocates about whether the entitlement programs will be cut.
The recently passed House budget framework requires $880 billion in cuts, which experts say the GOP probably cannot accomplish without significantly altering Medicaid or Medicare. That assessment is supported by analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Driven by Musk’s DOGE, the Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 employees. The agency has also halted overtime work in backlogged offices that process Americans’ benefit claims and is closing regional and field offices that serve the public.
Trump’s acting SSA commissioner told staff last week that mistakes would be made in the process.
Democrats have warned that those cuts could affect Americans’ ability to collect their benefits and said that further cuts could decimate the system.
Advertisement
“There were howls of protest and denial from the GOP any time we pointed out that Republicans want to cut Social Security,” former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said on X. “Now the most powerful official in the White House goes on TV and calls it ‘the big one to eliminate.’”
On X, the White House account called Buttigieg “an unemployed chronic liar.”
Dan Diamond contributed to this report.