Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have attacked multiple government agencies, purporting to find waste and fraud. But those claims continue to quickly collapse under independent scrutiny, with “billions” in so-called savings turning out to be fraudulent.
At the same time, the real cuts that DOGE has put in place have hurt ordinary people in the United States and around the world. Cuts to agencies like the United States Agency for International Development have reduced vital funding for American farmers, and multiple contracts canceled by DOGE are undermining services for military veterans.
Musk has repeatedly claimed these actions are saving taxpayers money and recently wrote, “There are millions of minor savings that add up to billions of dollars cumulatively.”
But years before he was gutting vital services and claiming to be in favor of saving tax dollars, Musk built his multi-billion-dollar empire on government handouts.
A Washington Post examination of Musk’s business affairs found that his companies received over $38 billion in government payments, from loans to contracts to tax credits, over the years. The Musk companies that benefited from this taxpayer financing include Tesla and SpaceX.
Trump and Musk
Musk has been on the government dole for over 20 years and had crucial support at both the federal and state levels. In fact, as he was spending millions to help elect Trump in the 2024 election—crusading against government spending in the process—Musk took in at least $6.3 billion from the government in that year alone.
Both Tesla and SpaceX have been the subject of complaints about safety, alleged discrimination, and other issues during that time. Since Trump took office the federal government has curtailed oversight and investigations related to the companies.
Yet despite this history, the Trump-led Federal Aviation Administration recently handed out a contract to Starlink, another Musk company. Starlink will be used in systems managing airline safety and was given the contract just weeks after Trump gutted the agency’s investment in diversity hiring, even as a shortage of air traffic controllers continues.
The contracts raise serious concerns about conflict of interest for Musk, but Trump recently told Fox News that the multibillionaire had been given a green light to profit from the government even as he purportedly works for it.
Musk has portrayed himself as a self-made entrepreneur, but that isn’t true. He is a beneficiary of government handouts on a scale vastly outweighing what the average middle-class American receives. Empowered by Trump, Musk is undermining the safety net for those Americans while championing policies that will cut benefits for people without the gigantic fortune that he has access to.
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