(Elon Musk claims DOGE has saved $55 billion, but the numbers don’t add up. DOGE released a list of canceled contracts totaling $16 billion in supposed savings. However, nearly half of that came from an $8 billion ICE contract—except that contract was actually worth just $8 million. A closer look at federal records shows Musk’s claims are vastly overstated, and the $55 billion figure lacks any real documentation.)
The New Republic
Donald Trump’s White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt boosted billionaire Elon Musk’s fantastical allegations of widespread fraud at the Social Security Administration (SSA) – and got called out for it.
“President Trump has directed Elon Musk and the DOGE team to identify fraud at the Social Security Administration. They haven’t dug into the books yet, but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people receiving fraudulent Social Security payments,” Leavitt said during an appearance on Fox News Monday.
Leavitt said DOGE was seeking to “identify payments that are going to deceased people who are no longer living, and should no longer be receiving that money.”
She claimed she had spent the day battling with “fake news reporters” who had been “fearmongering” about Musk. Earlier that day, Michelle King, SSA’s acting commissioner, resigned due to a clash with the unelected bureaucrat, who recently gained access to the agency’s databases that contain troves of sensitive data belonging to American citizens.
For someone with mere “suspicions,” as Leavitt put it, Musk has been steadily ramping up his public claims about fraud at the Social Security Administration. Last week, he claimed that DOGE’s review of the SSA had uncovered people marked as 150 years old who had been receiving social security benefits.
“Now, do you know anyone that’s 150? I don’t know. They should be in the Guinness Book of World Records.… So that’s a case where I think they’re probably dead,” Musk said during an appearance in the Oval Office.
He repeated the claim on X Sunday, attaching a chart of how many people in different age brackets had received social security benefits, suggesting that more than 16 million people whose ages were marked between 110 and 370 years old were receiving social security benefits.
“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,” Musk wrote.
In total, the chart inexplicably alleged that 400 million people were receiving social security benefits, while the SSA states that in 2024, there were only 68,455,973 social security recipients.
But that’s not the only part of Musk’s fraud claims that don’t quite pass the smell check.
DOGE didn’t discover fraud, but a filing error that was already made public in a 2023 report from the Inspector General’s Office. The office found that the Social Security databases, specifically the Death Master File (DMF) and the Numident, a file containing identifiable information for each person issued a Social Security number, were not always updated when someone died.
The Numident contained the names of more than 18 million people born before 1920 who had no death information. “Death information missing from the Numident and the DMF hampers both SSA and Government-wide efforts to prevent and detect fraud and misuse,” the report authors said. This isn’t the first time that Musk has claimed DOGE discovered something that was actually publicly available.
Crucially, this so-called discovery doesn’t necessarily indicate fraud.
The 2023 report found that 98 percent of social security number holders aged 100 years or older were not receiving benefits. Ultimately, the report determined that the system didn’t need to be updated because it was too expensive. Musk should like that kind of thing, right?
SSA has other means of combatting this issue. Since 2015, the SSA has had a policy of automatically terminating entitlement to beneficiaries who are “age 115, or older,” “in any current continuous suspense for seven years or more” or “entitled on a record where there are no other beneficiaries in a non-terminated status younger than the age of 115.”
Experts have suggested another possible explanation for the wide-ranging ages of beneficiaries is a quirk of COBOL, a 60-year-old programming language, which might use May 20, 1875, as a reference point in its coding. A COBOL system might indicate that anyone with a missing birthdate in the SSA’s database was 150 years old, which could explain Musk’s assertion about the droves of centenarians receiving social security benefits, according to Wired.
All of these holes render Leavitt’s desperate attempts to back up Musk’s outrageous claims all the more ridiculous.
Donald Trump’s White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt boosted billionaire Elon Musk’s fantastical allegations of widespread fraud at the Social Security Administration (SSA) – and got called out for it.
“President Trump has directed Elon Musk and the DOGE team to identify fraud at the Social Security Administration. They haven’t dug into the books yet, but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people receiving fraudulent Social Security payments,” Leavitt said during an appearance on Fox News Monday.
Leavitt said DOGE was seeking to “identify payments that are going to deceased people who are no longer living, and should no longer be receiving that money.”
She claimed she had spent the day battling with “fake news reporters” who had been “fearmongering” about Musk. Earlier that day, Michelle King, SSA’s acting commissioner, resigned due to a clash with the unelected bureaucrat, who recently gained access to the agency’s databases that contain troves of sensitive data belonging to American citizens.
For someone with mere “suspicions,” as Leavitt put it, Musk has been steadily ramping up his public claims about fraud at the Social Security Administration. Last week, he claimed that DOGE’s review of the SSA had uncovered people marked as 150 years old who had been receiving social security benefits.
“Now, do you know anyone that’s 150? I don’t know. They should be in the Guinness Book of World Records.… So that’s a case where I think they’re probably dead,” Musk said during an appearance in the Oval Office.
He repeated the claim on X Sunday, attaching a chart of how many people in different age brackets had received social security benefits, suggesting that more than 16 million people whose ages were marked between 110 and 370 years old were receiving social security benefits.
“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,” Musk wrote.
In total, the chart inexplicably alleged that 400 million people were receiving social security benefits, while the SSA states that in 2024, there were only 68,455,973 social security recipients.
But that’s not the only part of Musk’s fraud claims that don’t quite pass the smell check.
The Numident contained the names of more than 18 million people born before 1920 who had no death information. “Death information missing from the Numident and the DMF hampers both SSA and Government-wide efforts to prevent and detect fraud and misuse,” the report authors said. This isn’t the first time that Musk has claimed DOGE discovered something that was actually publicly available.
Crucially, this so-called discovery doesn’t necessarily indicate fraud.
The 2023 report found that 98 percent of social security number holders aged 100 years or older were not receiving benefits. Ultimately, the report determined that the system didn’t need to be updated because it was too expensive. Musk should like that kind of thing, right?
SSA has other means of combatting this issue. Since 2015, the SSA has had a policy of automatically terminating entitlement to beneficiaries who are “age 115, or older,” “in any current continuous suspense for seven years or more” or “entitled on a record where there are no other beneficiaries in a non-terminated status younger than the age of 115.”
Experts have suggested another possible explanation for the wide-ranging ages of beneficiaries is a quirk of COBOL, a 60-year-old programming language, which might use May 20, 1875, as a reference point in its coding. A COBOL system might indicate that anyone with a missing birthdate in the SSA’s database was 150 years old, which could explain Musk’s assertion about the droves of centenarians receiving social security benefits, according to Wired.
All of these holes render Leavitt’s desperate attempts to back up Musk’s outrageous claims all the more ridiculous.
To read rest of story, click on link: https://www.newsbreak.com/the-new-republic-1991457/3818698895374-trump-press-secretary-hit-with-embarrassing-fact-check-on-fraud-claim
23 comments:
Got my mature trophy wife to pull out her big titties in public. Pretty sure the younger male employee copped a long while blending up some fruits. Should have invited him back for a balling.
Juan, they are just fucking around. Can't you tell, ese?
MAGA is lost. Tackled something it did not understand and now will fuck it up.
No seas mamoncito Montoya! DOGE (Musk) cannot show every transactions, there is a lot being kept hidden for the moment, because it will be shocking and end up some important people being criminally procecuted.
That little blondie press secretary is way over her head. AIRHEAD!!!
The New Republic is a media source which is moderately to strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. Fake media! Why are democrats so afraid of audits? What are they hiding? Let’s say there aren’t millions of people receiving Social Security benefits fraudulently. But if there’s one, that’s one too many. Let the audits continue. At the end of the day I want to see proof of the audit results.
All MAGA lies.
Esta gente se la mamman solos. They are dogs.
but, but das how billionaires become billionaires los pobresitos lack support from the banks which billionaires have. REMEMBER DA BANKS
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply
She is in her twenties. Musk has a 19 year old working in DOGE. The young impressionable and miliable.
maliable
Love The New Republic!!!
@7:23 Otro mamoncito! Prefer the DEI black Manflora press secretary who lied about mushy brain Biden's mental state! Hahahahahaha!
Malleable!
Democrats are the party of fraud.
In the first month as president, Trump has made $80 million dollars for himself. Melania got $40 million with a deal with Amazon : a book about returning to the White House.
LOL
Your mature trophy puta wife.
February 22, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Hahahahahaha! ESTUPIDO! Hahahahahaha!
February 22, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Otro pinche mamon at 6:57AM, ay Juan, mamasela Hahahahaha!
February 22, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Otro pinche mamon, ay montoya, at 7:21 AM, mamasela, nomas falta el cartoon otro mamon. Hahahaha!
@8:17 I'm a Trump supporter, but both parties are involved in the fraud and lawfare against Trump!!! Trump and Musk (DOGE) hasn't mentioned any names because he needs the Republicans right now to pass all his appointees and a very important bill. Eventually those involved in the fraud/Lawfare from both parties will come to light! Hahahahahaha!
The wife is mature, young, Mexican, or naked. It some old pedorro who lives in la Southmost and dreams of living in Rancho Viejo. Just stop reading when you realize it his dumbass message and scroll past it.
Post a Comment