Musk under fire

Democrats believe attacking the world's richest man as an unelected billionaire bent on a slash-and-burn crusade targeting social security and healthcare will revive their prospects as the Tesla CEO's popularity sinks

- Lauren Gambino

FOR MOST OF THE 17-minute interview, Elon Musk stuck to a script. He was just a tech guy on a mission to "eliminate waste and fraud” from the US government.

His slash-and-burn cost-cutting crusade was making "good progress actually", he told the Fox Business commentator Larry Kudlow last Monday, despite sparking a backlash that has reverberated far beyond Washington. "Really, I just don't want America to go bankrupt," he added.

But then Kudlow asked Musk to look forward. Would the so called "department of government efficiency" (Doge) still be in place in a year? He thought so - his assignment wasn't quite complete.

Musk, the world's richest man, then pointed to social security, a widely popular federal programme that provides monthly benefits to retirees and people with disabilities, and other social safety net programmes: "Most of the federal spending is entitlements. That's the big one to eliminate." For weeks, Donald Trump and Republicans have insisted social security, Medicaid or Medicare would not "be touched". Now, however, Musk suggested they would be a primary target. Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, Democrats pounced.

"The average social security recipient in this country receives $65 a day. They have to survive on $65 a day. But you want to take a chainsaw to social security, when Elon Musk and his tens of billions of dollars of government contracts essentially makes at least $8m a day from the taxpayers," said Hakeem Jeffries, the US House minority leader. "If you want to uncover waste, fraud or abuse, start there."