Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz was widely mocked for hosting billionaire Elon Musk on his The Verdict podcast, only for Musk's appearance to derail after he began talking about "magic money computers" throughout Trump's governmental agencies.
Musk has garnered fierce criticism for slashing funding and personnel at federal agencies via his fake department "DOGE" despite not being an elected official—and a foreign-born, unelected official at that.
In fact, according to a White House record, Musk's job title is listed as "unlisted." When President Donald Trump established DOGE through an executive order, he integrated it into the White House by transforming the U.S. Digital Service into the U.S. DOGE Service. The order specified that an "administrator" would lead DOGE but did not indicate who held the position.
Last month, a White House spokesperson stated that Musk holds the title of an unpaid special government employee, a designation that exempts him from the standard ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations applicable to federal workers. As a result, Trump's order for federal agencies to prepare for “large-scale reductions in force” is in full swing.
And if Musk is to be believed, it looks like these "reductions" have identified—wait for it—"magic money computers" that are allegedly wasting federal funds all throughout Trump's government.
Cruz teed Musk up:
"One of the things you told me about is what you call "magic money computers" at the Treasury. So tell us about it."
And Musk replied:
"You may think that government computers all talk to each other, they all synchronize, they add up what funds are going somewhere and its coherent and that the numbers that you're presented as a Senator are actually the real numbers...They're not."
Musk claimed that numbers were not necessarily "totally wrong" but alleged that the numbers are "probably" off from five to 10 percent, amounting to his latest baseless accusation of fraud on the part of the federal government.
"I call a computer a "magic money computer" any computer which can just make money out of thin air, that's magic money."
Amid Musk's ramblings, Cruz asked "'How does that work?" to which Musk replied:
"It just issues payments!"
Cruz followed up with:
"And you said there are something like 11 computers at [the] Treasury [Department] that are sending out trillions in payments?"
Musk replied:
"There are some at Treasury. There are some at HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services], one or two at [the Department of State], there are some at DOD [the Department of Defense]. I think we've found 14 magic money computers."
Afterward, Cruz shared footage of Musk's appearance and dramatically called Musk's claims "an absolute bombshell," asserting that these "computers" exist and "send money out of nothing."
It was nonsensical—and people wasted no time in calling out both men for platforming a total fantasy.
It's worth noting that Musk has stated that his goal is to reduce federal spending by $2 trillion from the $6.75 trillion annual budget recorded in the last fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30. According to DOGE, its initiatives have led to an estimated $55 billion in savings. However, recent reports indicate that the actual savings may be significantly lower.
Last month, Bloomberg reported that the DOGE website accounts for only $16.6 billion of the $55 billion it claims to have saved. Additionally, on Tuesday, The New York Times revealed that DOGE had incorrectly cited an $8 billion savings on a federal contract that was actually valued at just $8 million.
Last week, news outlets reported that a federal judge is considering whether to temporarily block DOGE from accessing the internal systems of the Social Security Administration (SSA), an agency whose gutting has prompted protests nationwide.
So what was that about those magic money computers?
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