- Donald Trump lists DOGE disclosures and calls it fraud
- He commented on the Social Security Numbers data
- And spends USAID highlighting concern for everything but America
Donald Trump has firmly stated his stance on the role of Elon Musk and made careful but unambiguous comments on his latest disclosures regarding Social Security Numbers and USAID.
Elon Musk also promised to discuss with the president the possibility of paying dividends for such a waste of taxpayer money, though some worry about the effects on inflation.
Read More About Donald Trump’s Comments
So, while giving a press conference mostly about resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which Trump noted as a higher priority right now, he did pay detailed attention to Elon Musk’s disclosures.
First, he outlined his attitude toward his role in the administration, especially for those who doubt the authority of Musk’s actions.
“Is to me a patriot, so you know, you can call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want, but he’s a patriot. I mean, look at the kind of things. I just said, write it down just in case that question, and I’m surprised that it took so long actually. But you know what, Ukraine is a bigger deal because people are dying by the thousands a week. Thousands.”
First of all, he decided to read out and comment on the Social Security Numbers in detail, and it should be noted that he was quite careful and even ironic in his statements, more than usual. However, the questions he asked were quite direct and probably very uncomfortable for those in charge.
- 90 to 99: 6,054,154 people
“Well, that’s OK. Maybe that’s possible. You know, 90 to 99, maybe it’s possible. It’s a lot of people, though.”
- 100 to 109: 4,734,407 people
“Wow, that’s a lot. That means over 100 years old, there are 4 million people. I know people that are doing great in their 90s, but not too many people over 100.”
- 120 to 129: 3,472,849 people
“Well, you know, that can’t possibly be because the record is like—I think it’s one person. A woman lived to 127, but they have 3,472,000? OK.”
- 130 to 139: 3,936,311 people
“Wow. I wonder if people are getting paid all these checks. And that’s what we’re checking right now.”
- 140 to 149: 3,542,044 people
“140 years old and beyond—now we’re really going, because we’re looking to break the record by 25 years.”
- 150 to 159: 1,345,083 people
“These are, by the way, in the computer files. This is what they do there. I asked ‘Elon, who are these people?’ He said ‘they’re super brilliant computer people, and they love the country. It’s simple.'”
- 160 to 169: 121,807 people
- 170 to 179: 6,087 people
“Now, let’s go into the real numbers.”
- 200 to 209: 879 people
- 210 to 219: 866 people
“I haven’t met any of them, and if I did, I would bless them. I would worship the ground they walk on.”
- 220 to 229: 1,039 people
- 240 to 249: 1 person
- 360 years old: 1 person
Probably, because the last figures speak for themselves in favor of absolute impossibility, he did not comment on it in detail and with a wry smile summed up the results, indicating the parsing of further expenses.
“It’s just that. And then where is the money being spent? Let’s go into that for just a second.”
- $520 million for a consultant on the environment: Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) investments in Africa and mobilizing private sector resources
“$520 million. Somebody got $520 million for an environmental—sounds like environmental studies. Most—I’ve always been one that paid a lot of money for my environmental studies, but you know, I pay like $50,000, not $520 million.”
- $25 million to promote biodiversity conservation and listed livelihoods by developing socially responsible behavior in Colombia
- $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants
- $42 million for Johns Hopkins to research and drive social and behavior change in Uganda
“42? What about us? About social change in our country?”
- $70 million for a center at Purdue University to research evidence-based solutions to developmental challenges
- $10 million for Mozambique’s voluntary medical male circumcision
- $9.7 million for UC Berkeley to develop a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise-driven skills
“And let’s teach them something about enterprise. What about our people? Can’t we teach them about enterprise?”
- $2.3 million for strengthening independent voices in Cambodia
- $32 million to the Prague Civil Society Center
“Which is a very liberal group of people. Wonder how much of that money came back to the people that approved it.”
- $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia
- $486 million to the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, including:
- $22 million for inclusive and participatory political process in Moldova
- $21 million for voter turnout in India
“Why are we giving $21 million to India? They got a lot of money. They’re one of the highest taxing countries in the world in terms of us. We can hardly get in there because their tariffs are so high. I have a lot of respect for India. I have a lot of respect for the Prime Minister. He just left, as you know, two days ago. But we’re giving $21 million for voter turnout? It’s about turnout in India. What about voter turnout here? We’ve done that. I guess we did $500 million, didn’t we? The lockboxes.”
- $20 million for fiscal federalism in Nepal
- $19 million for biodiversity conservation in Nepal
“All it’s fraud.”
- $1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia
- $14 million for social cohesion in Mali
- $2.5 million for inclusive democracy in South Africa
- $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia
“Doing very well. They’re doing a lot better than we do in the schools, aren’t they?”
- $2 million to develop sustainable recycling models to increase socioeconomic cohesion among marginalized communities in Egypt
Summarizing these figures, he commented:
“We’re talking about hundreds of billions, by the way. I could read this all day long. I could go on all day long, and you’ll see hundreds of billions of dollars. And we’re doing it.”
He gave a rather harsh assessment in his opinion of the current state of American financial systems and departments:
“Everybody knows that we have a very corrupt country. Very corrupt country. And it’s a sad thing to say, but we’re figuring it out now.”
However, not without irony, he assessed the strength of American Social Security given such incredible spending:
“But when I saw the Social Security numbers, I said, wow, that’s really something. So we have—let’s just go above 100 years old—we have millions and millions of people over 100 years old. The good thing about Social Security and what I read is if you take all of those numbers off—because they’re obviously fraudulent or incompetent—but if you take all of those millions of people off Social Security, all of a sudden we have a very powerful Social Security with people that are 80 and 70 and 90—but not 200 years old. Such a very positive thing.”
Also, this was spread in X, where James Fishback suggested a ‘DOGE Dividend’, which Elon Musk did not ignore and said he would discuss it with Donald Trump.
Preston Brashers also got involved, who, while favorable to DOGE, expressed concern about rising inflation in the event of such massive payouts. And James Fishback commented on this, pointing out that he had foreseen such objections and according to his analysis, it should not cause such effects.
Conclusion
Probably the first direct answers to direct questions about Elon Musk’s authority, and the first detailed comments about his disclosures that we hear from Donald Trump.
This is very important because previous general assessments did not give a full idea of how long and how intensively Elon Musk is authorized to continue such audits. Today, we can assume that we probably shouldn’t expect them to stop or even weaken anytime soon.
However, whether this will provoke increasing resistance from agencies and judges, and what side effects it may create – remain open, and highly important questions.
Be aware and stay tuned for updates on the rapidly reshaping regulatory and crypto landscape.
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