“We got people in there who are 150 years old,” Musk said. “Anyone who is 150 years old and still receiving Social Security should be in the Guinness Book of World Records, or either dead, in my opinion.”
“That’s a case I think they are probably dead,” Musk continued as Trump cackled next to him.”Or very famous. One of the two.”
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Musk’s baseless claim at Oval Office
The proclamation made by Musk ignited a firestorm of responses on social media, with X users slamming the Tesla CEO. “I hate this site. Elon Musk’s Big Lie Machine,” one person wrote. “Just name the 150-year-olds ‘receiving Social Security payments’ Show us the dead people’s names.”
“The oldest living American is 114, and people are really stupid enough to believe Elon Musk found social security payments to people who are 150. Nobody on the planet is that old,” another person wrote.In US, social security provides a base income for people who are either retired or can’t work because of a disability. It covers about 67 million Americans. Regarding the programme, Musk said: “There’s crazy things… cross re-examination of Social Security, and we’ve got people in there that are 150 years old.” He did not provide evidence of this.ALSO READ: ‘Big con job’: Trump wants Department of Education to be closed immediately. Can the US President abolish it?
There has been no specific evidence for the claim, BBC said in its report. There have been previous reports which have identified tens of billions of dollars of fraud in social security payments – but we have found no specific evidence of 150-year-olds claiming benefits, BBC said.
Trump-Musk presser at Oval Office
It was Elon Musk’s first public appearance since being named the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he and his employees have largely conducted in secret and without accountability.
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DOGE has been tasked with slashing federal spending. Trump on Tuesday praised Musk’s work with doge, saying they’ve found “shocking” evidence of wasteful spending. The Republican president signed an executive order to expand Musk’s influence and continue downsizing the federal workforce.
Musk defended DOGE’s work as “common sense.”
“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” he said. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
