Buttigieg Calls Out GOP's Hypocrisy After Musk Says Cutting Social Security Is 'The Big One'

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized Republicans' hypocrisy after billionaire Elon Musk said in an interview with Fox Business that the Social Security Administration (SSA) is "the big one to eliminate" as part of his slash-and-burn approach to cutting federal spending.

Musk’s remarks came during an interview with host Larry Kudlow, responding to a question about the possibility of a report addressing waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending.

He said:

"The most important is entitlement spending. Most of the federal spending is entitlements. So that’s the big one to eliminate. That’s the sort of half trillion, maybe six, 700 billion."

Buttigieg soon thereafter shared the footage of Musk's remarks and pointed out the GOP's hypocrisy, noting:

"There were howls of protest and denial from the GOP any time we pointed out that Republicans want to cut Social Security. Now the most powerful official in the White House goes on TV and calls it "the big one to eliminate."

You can see Buttigieg's post and hear what Musk said in the video below.

Many echoed Buttigieg's criticisms.

President Donald Trump’s communications team defended Musk’s remarks, calling critics "lying hacks" and stating in a Tuesday morning X post that Musk "was talking about waste, fraud, and abuse — of which there is $500+ billion every year."

Meanwhile, Musk questioned the number of people receiving Social Security and the distribution of Small Business Administration loans. He pointed to issues with outdated records, asking why "20 million people who are definitely dead" were still marked as alive in the Social Security database and why "hundreds of millions of dollars" in SBA loans were reportedly given to children "aged 11 and under, according to the Social Security."

Trump echoed a similar false claim during his speech to a joint session of Congress last week, stating that 4.7 million people aged at least 100 were still listed in the Social Security Administration’s database and that "money is being paid to many of them."