Elon Musk made clear on Monday that Social Safety and different “entitlements” are actually in his crosshairs, baselessly claiming the packages are rife with fraud. “A lot of the federal spending is entitlements,” Musk told the Fox Business Network. “That’s the massive one to get rid of.”
The billionaire additional declared that “20 million people who find themselves undoubtedly lifeless” are receiving Social Safety advantages, a declare the president’s handpicked appearing Social Safety Administration commissioner has rejected. This all got here after Donald Trump tried to quash issues that his administration would intestine social security web packages. “None of that stuff goes to be touched,” Trump stated in an interview late final month, with Musk sitting proper subsequent to him.
In fact, that was little reassurance, contemplating Trump shortly threw his assist behind a Home GOP price range plan that may intestine Medicaid to assist offset the huge tax breaks the president promised to his wealthiest supporters. And Musk’s feedback on Monday verify that Medicaid isn’t the one program in jeopardy with Trump and his so-called “effectivity” czar operating the nation unchecked. “Musk stated the quiet half out loud: he’s going after your Social Safety and Medicare. Interval,” Senator Elissa Slotkin, considered one of a number of Democrats who pounced on the DOGE chief’s latest assaults on the favored packages, wrote Monday. “Mark my phrases. They’ll make you pay in each a part of your life.”
Certainly, the looming prices of Trump’s financial chaos are already beginning to become visible. After failing to carry down prices instantly upon taking workplace—as he insisted he would in his bombastic marketing campaign path guarantees—Trump’s commerce wars and see-sawing coverage decisions have triggered turmoil and a inventory market sell-off. His effort to downplay the financial uncertainty on Sunday solely made issues worse: After Trump refused to take the potential of a recession this yr off the desk—“I hate to foretell issues like that,” he stated—the market took another plunge Monday, with the Nasdaq Composite posting its third-worst loss ever, solely behind two days originally of the Covid pandemic within the remaining yr of Trump’s first time period.
This volatility is each utterly pointless and unsafe to the on a regular basis Individuals who can’t afford to climate this “transition,” as Trump has referred to as it, not to mention a full-scale recession, the way in which he and his oligarchic administration can. Not that Musk has gone unscathed: Tesla shares crashed 15 percent on Monday because the tech tycoon stated he was having “great difficulty” working his corporations whereas taking his gilded chainsaw to the federal authorities.
Finally, that’s a drop within the bucket for the world’s richest man. For many who don’t have a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} and now see their retirement financial savings in danger due to the plummeting market, or depend on the Social Safety they paid into and that’s now beneath risk, the stakes are significantly larger. This has led to palpable public nervousness concerning the state of the economic system—a key challenge behind Trump’s 2024 victory—and to mounting opposition to Musk.
Trump made a present of reining Musk in final week. However late Monday evening, the president threw his full assist behind him as soon as once more, praising the DOGE head for “placing it on the road” and doing a “FANTASTIC JOB”—all whereas lamenting Tesla’s critics and boycotters searching for to “do hurt to Elon, and every little thing he stands for.”
“I’m going to purchase a model new Tesla tomorrow morning as a present of confidence and assist for Elon Musk,” Trump posted. “Why ought to he be punished for placing his large expertise to work with a view to assist MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???”
