FACT CHECK: Musk Didn’t Say He Would Eliminate Entitlements

A post shared on X claims special government employee Elon Musk said he would eliminate entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.

Verdict: Misleading

Musk said he was looking to eliminate waste and fraud in entitlement programs, not eliminating entitlements entirely.

Fact Check:

Social media users are claiming Musk, one of the leaders of the White House office called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said he wants to eliminate entitlement programs.

“Elon Musk says he wants to ‘eliminate’ programs like Social Security and Medicare: ‘Entitlements… That’s the big one to eliminate,’” reads one user’s post.

This claim is misleading. Musk did not state that he wanted to eliminate entitlement programs. Instead, he said he wanted to eliminate waste and fraud in entitlement programs.

“The waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is most of the federal spending, is entitlements, so that’s the big one to eliminate,” he says in the clip. The New York Times reported that Musk “claimed fraud in Social Security and other major programs was ‘the big one to eliminate.’”

Alex Pfeiffer, a Trump administration spokesperson, pushed back on X against the claim.

“The reason Democrats fail at rapid response is that they endlessly lie so no one trusts them. They are so desperate for trust that they call this account of lies ‘FactPost.’ They are counting on you not watching the video and seeing that Elon is referring to waste in programs,” Pfeiffer tweeted.