Elon Musk, an American entrepreneur and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said on February 8 that the U.S. Treasury pays up to $100 billion in benefits to unidentified individuals each year.
He called for all government payments to be accompanied by a payment classification code to facilitate financial audits and for all payments to include a reason for the payment in a memo column, which is currently left blank.
Musk wrote on X-Platform (formerly Twitter): “Yesterday someone told me that over $100 billion per year is currently being paid to individuals without a Social Security number or even a temporary ID. If true, this is very suspicious.”
The entrepreneur also said that when asked if anyone at the Treasury could give a rough estimate of what proportion of that figure was unambiguous and obvious fraud, the consensus among those present was about half.
He concluded: “That’s $50 billion a year, $1 billion a week! This is insane and needs to be dealt with immediately!”
Trump ‘s executive order was published on the White House website on January 20, suspending Washington’s development aid to other countries for 90 days. Subsequently, Reuters reported on January 25 that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had frozen aid projects to foreign countries, including support for Ukraine, and the decision was made based on a State Department notification approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
On February 3, Musk announced the start of the liquidation process for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He said the agency was beyond saving and should be closed. At the same time, Trump called the agency’s leadership “radical lunatics.”
Musk’s team has gained access to USAID’s confidential document storage room, Bloomberg reported on February 5. In addition, more than 100 employees of the agency have been placed on administrative leave.
