Summary

Elon Musk suggested cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in a Fox News interview, citing debunked claims about fraud and linking benefits to illegal immigration.

He falsely claimed millions of deceased individuals remain in the Social Security system, a statement previously refuted by officials.

While Trump has promised not to cut entitlement programs, Musk’s remarks indicate they are under threat, potentially impacting millions of Americans.

His rhetoric echoes far-right conspiracy theories, raising concerns about his influence on policy discussions regarding social safety nets.

    • Carmakazi@lemmy.world
      104·
      21 hours ago

      If it gets out of hand Elmo will be left holding the bag and likely forced out. The Trump admin will continue on like nothing happened, they won’t lose an ounce of support, and DOGE will just be a short footnote on our decline to fascism.

        • 9point6@lemmy.world
          44·
          20 hours ago

          That’s not optimism, it’s the very real conclusion that Elon is the (miraculously unwitting) fall guy for all the bad shit they need done early on to facilitate everything else. They’ll get to do the whole “we got rid of the bad eggs, we’ve tuned over a new leaf” thing that conservative politicians love to do when they kick out a fall guy.

          This time next year he’s going to be shouting on some fuckhead podcast about how he was used. I practically guarantee it.

          Well that or Elon successfully manages to do what he thinks will happen and manages to take full control

          • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            37·
            20 hours ago

            Counterpoint: There’s a significant chance that Musk has dirt on Trump. He literally has access to Trump’s old DM’s from Twitter. There’s a good chance that when he was forced to buy Twitter he needed to find something he could leverage out of the forced buy. Trump’s DMs are easy pickings at that point, they were never encrypted. That’s why they’re called “Direct Messages” and not “Private Messages.”

            Further, there’s rampant speculation that Musk helped him steal the election, but that’s a lot more loose and may not be a real thing. Musk having access to Trump’s past DMs on Twitter is basically a fact.

            • Generic_Idiot@lemm.eeEnglish
              13·
              18 hours ago

              Yeah but even if he had DM that said he raped and ate women and children none of his supporters would care

              Having dirt on him does nothing when his supporters eat dirt.

            • jaybone@lemmy.world
              4·
              15 hours ago

              It’s just like I have said about Putin having the underaged piss tapes. I don ‘t get it. Why should Trump lick his boots? Trump never suffers any consequences. No legal repercussions. His cult followers don’t drop him. Those supposed piss tapes could come out and no one would give a shit. So I’m not sure what his Twitter DMs could possibly have either.

            • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              4·
              17 hours ago

              It’s neigh impossible to fix US elections without thpusands working in secret. Musk did not fix the election. More people voted for Trump because the right has made a concerted effort to make Americans dumber and it worked.

              In addition to Trump’s DM’s Musk might have his own ties to the Kremlin which will share dirt on both men with each other so none threaten Putin.

        • Carmakazi@lemmy.world
          11·
          21 hours ago

          In the grand scheme of things Leon is just one of many douchebags. One that has been publicly grating to deal with for the rest of the gang. They’ve probably been planning an ouster against him for a minute, it’s just a matter of squeezing what use they can out of him in the meantime.

      • NeonNight@lemm.eeEnglish
        25·
        20 hours ago

        I 100% expect him to throw Elmo under the bus like he has with every other person that’s been on his side. He won’t really even need to try, his supporters will do it for him because they can’t handle a reality where they were wrong about the Orange One

      • littletoolshed@lemmy.worldEnglish
        35·
        20 hours ago

        Dude, we are talking about 12.4% of folks taxable earnings since the day they all joined the workforce. You think tears are the only things gonna happen if that got stolen?

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
          3·
          20 hours ago

          At the same time we’re also talking about a demographic that’s deeply steeped in fox news disinformation so who the fuck knows what they’d think the cause or actuality of the suspension of benefits would be.

          • littletoolshed@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            19 hours ago

            I’m not certain which demo you’re referring. All Americans with jobs pay into SS, and certainly not even half of them give a fuck all about some shitty cable infotainment network.

            • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
              2·
              19 hours ago

              All Americans should care - but the folks that really care are the ones dependent on it in their retirement.

              • littletoolshed@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                19 hours ago

                Agreed, totally, I just don’t think there is any evidence that all of those people (many, many Americans) are Fox News fans or would even want to be in the same room when it’s on the television.

                • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
                  2·
                  18 hours ago

                  I was specifically talking to that demographic that collects social security which are of retirement age (generally) and overwhelming consume fox news according to viewership demographics.

                  • littletoolshed@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    1·
                    18 hours ago

                    Ok, thank you for explaining, I thought the context was all Americans who could claim the SS benefit, hence my confusion with your comment. Cheers!

          • littletoolshed@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            18 hours ago

            Also (sorry to double comment you) wanted to mention, I don’t think any American has yet had to deal with actually not having SS benefits (I mean generally, in that they still exist, I am not talking about exceptional cases and those where the benefits were taken away legally, if that exists).

            From the Gallup article you posted:

            Social Security’s future has been a topic of debate for decades. The system is expected to be able to continue to pay full benefits to recipients through 2033 if no changes are made to the system. In 2034, the system is projected to be able to pay 80% of benefits to recipients.

            So it could happen in the next decade, but we expect it based on how it’s structured.

            If it gets taken away from Americans by some ruling class, I’m pretty sure the reactions will be swift and meaningful. And I’m not even referring to any kind of violence, just normal old social and political and legal actions.

        • nesc@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          1·
          19 hours ago

          Yes. What do you think will happen? Do you think there were no dictators or tyrannical regimes before or that they were universally liked? Most of the people that were at the helm end up fine, after decade or more of being in power. Don’t delude yourself that there will be some kind of revolution, people will just take it and move on.