In one of his first in -depth interviews since he joined the United States government, Elon Musk pressed a variety of claims on waste and fraud, but offered little new information or information on the work of the Government Efficiency Department (Doge).
In a wide three -hour discussion with Podcaster Joe Rogan he published Friday, Musk reviewed well -traveled complaints about the media and the democratic donor of billionaire George Soros. He also mentioned whether he believes that private aerospace contractors have secret propulsion technology (“I don’t think they hide it”), their respect for Trump’s cabinet (“this is a revolutionary cabinet and perhaps the most revolutionary cabinet since the first revolution”), and a recent frantic theory that gold in Fort Knox had been stolen.
Musk made Rogan ask Grok, the Chatbot AI built by the Musk company, Xai, if “all gold was in Fort Knox.”
“Are you a conspiracy theorist F ——?” Grok replied, drawing laughs from Musk and Rogan.
Musk, who has appeared in the Rogan podcast twice before, also discussed the efforts of revival dogs in government agencies, including the International Development Agency, Social Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Treasury Department.
The appearance of the podcast occurs when the rise of Musk in the United States government now seems complete. Although the administration has said that he is an advisor to the White House, President Donald Trump has said that Musk is leading the way with Doge’s efforts to reduce the federal government. In the first meeting of the Trump cabinet on Wednesday, Musk played a huge role, with Trump giving him the floor for a large part.
Despite Musk’s high profile and almost constant publication in X, important questions about dogs remain and what he is doing, with pressure increasing from politicians and judges to be more communicable about their operations.
The podcast Rogan did little to answer those questions. Although Musk spoke extensively about Dege, he offered few details.
Dege faces almost a dozen demands regarding their access to data from government agencies and departments. Musk defended the efforts, saying that “any of Doge has to go through the same research process that those federal employees passed” to access the databases.
“If, for example, a security authorization is needed, the Dux person has to have the same security authorization, so there is no reduction in security,” Musk said.
It is not clear what type of authorization or research has Doge employees.
He also said that Doge’s cuts were not mandatory.
“I want to be clear, these are cuts that Dege recommends the department,” Musk said. “In general, these recommendations are followed, but these are recommendations that then confirm the department.”
Musk told Rogan that the initiative began with around 40 to 100 people, but did not say if that number has increased and that the total number of Dux employees is still unknown. Doge has been ridiculed by members of Congress, federal officials and others for their personnel elections, and some members are as young as 19.
Musk also continued making statements about fraud with little evidence. He reviewed the Social Security, around which he recently made fraud statements that were discredited by Associated Press, citing a general report by the Social Security Inspector of 2024.
“We found only a basic search for the Social Security database that there were 20 million people marked as living,” Musk said.
When Rogan asked if they were receiving money, Musk said yes, but could not answer what percentage he was receiving money. The Interim Social Security Commissioner, Lee Dudek, acknowledged recent reports. “The informed data are people in our records with a social security number that do not have a death date associated with their history. These people do not necessarily receive benefits. “
Musk said fraud arose from people who received disabilities and unemployment payments because they were marked as living. He did not provide evidence of that claim, calling fraud a “bank taking.”
In the interview, Musk also said that FEMA supposedly spent $ 59 million in homes for migrants, a claim he also made in X. Despite the writing of musk in his position that the information had been discovered by the “Doge team”, the expense had been public and appropriate by Congress.
The day after Musk made his X Post, four FEMA officials were fired for having links to finance hotels for migrants in New York City.
Musk also approached the reaction he faced after making a gesture compared to Nazi greeting during the celebration of Trump’s inauguration. He called the coverage after that episode “Coordinated propaganda” of the “Legacy Media”. After making the gesture, Musk published words related to Nazi to X.
“Obviously it was understood in the most positive spirit possible,” Musk said. “Now I can never point out things diagonally.”
“It is deliberate propaganda.” Musk added. “They know that it obviously did not mean negatively. I literally said: ‘My heart is with you’. It was very positive. All my speech was very positive. “
