Photo: Alamy
The White House put out an official “fact check” to counter false claims that the Trump administration seeks to cut benefits for Americans.
The statement was issued on Tuesday and points to media reports claiming Elon Musk and DOGE are targeting entitlement spending for cuts. Despite President Trump’s clarity on the issue and his repeated assurances that his administration will be targeting waste and fraud, the media has continued to claim President Trump wants to cut entitlement spending.
The White House statement includes a direct quote from Elon Musk, describing the “waste and fraud in entitlement spending,” which is estimated to cost between $600 and $700 billion per year. Musk distinctly identifies waste and fraud within entitlement programs rather than eliminating or cutting the programs themselves.
The statement goes on to bolster Musk’s claims with estimates from the U.S. Government Accountability Office showing the federal government loses hundreds of billions of dollars every year to fraud within entitlement programs. The office includes an estimate of over $2.7 trillion in “improper payments” over the last 20 fiscal years.
President Trump has repeatedly assured Americans he will not make cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. However, he has emphasized common sense measures to cut down on waste and fraud.
In his speech to Congress last week, President Trump outlined the signs of obviously fraudulent payments within Social Security, including millions of listed recipients who are over 110 years old. Trump clearly distinguished the fraudulent payments his administration is seeking to eliminate from the genuine entitlement payments which are beneficial to Americans.
“Money is being paid to many of them, and we’re searching right now,” President Trump said. “A lot of money is paid out to people because it just keeps getting paid and paid and it really hurts social security. It hurts our country.”