Elon Musk left the fate of your Social Security payments in the hands of a 21-year-old DOGE tech bro
The wealthiest man on earth was so distrustful of the nonpartisan experts at the Social Security Administration that he and his allies insisted on giving a 21-year-old former Silicon Valley intern sweeping access to personal data on hundreds of millions of Americans, living and dead, in hopes of proving his outlandish claims about fraudulent payments passing though the agency.
Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team made no attempt to understand data the tech billionaire was citing when he began claiming that 'massive fraud' was allowing Social Security payments to flow to 'illegals' in a series of X posts in early February, despite warnings from Social Security officials who told them they did not know what they were talking about, the The New York Times reported.
Instead, he ordered 21-year-old Akash Bobba, a former Palantir intern who'd been hired as a programmer for DOGE, be granted access to Social Security data without proper training so he could run his own analysis, the Times reported
When the acting commissioner, Michelle King, declined to do so, Musk had her fired and replaced with Leland Dudek. Dudek, brought back from a suspension on the DOGE team's recommendation, got Bobba the access.
But according to the Times, Bobba knew the Musk fraud claims were bunk.
He reportedly told others at the agency that he'd 'tried to deliverthe accurate context' to the world's richest person, apparently without success.
Citing interviews with dozens of people in the agency and throughout the Trump administration, the Times said Musk 'became fixated' on Social Security after he and his team misread government spending data and began to believe, incorrectly, that they'd uncovered fraud at the nation's old-age and disability pension program.
Musk's team reportedly became so obsessed and driven to prove the false claims as true that they pushed SSA officials to disregard a court order cutting off DOGE's access to sensitive data including Americans' Social Security numbers, employment history and other sensitive matters, even as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO became a target for administration critics after he referred to the massively popular New Deal program as a 'Ponzi scheme.'
One Musk ally, Michael Russo, was installed as the SSA's chief information officer. He pushed the then-acting commissioner to have agency workers analyze the data the Tesla billionaire and his team were claiming to be evidence of fraudulent payments.
When the Social Security experts said the payments in question were valid, Russo ignored them and said Musk's team wouldn't accept the conclusions of civil servants.
Musk departed government service earlier this month amid a falling-out with Trump, but his outsized wealth and ownership of the X platform mean he could create chaos surrounding the GOP's agenda and its plans for the 2026 midterms.
According to the most recent poll by The Economist and YouGov, a full 76 percent of Republicans see Musk favorably while just 18 percent view him unfavorably.
According to a poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College in late April, 77 percent of Republicans view Musk favorably.
The billionaire is more popular than House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, or almost anyone else in the GOP save for President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
But at the same time, just fifteen percent of Democrats and 34 percent of independents have favorable views of the tech mogul.
A week after he blew up his relationship with Trump by, among other things, accusing him of being a pedophile, Musk took to X to express regret over his war of words with the president and back down by conceding that 'some' of his posts attacking the commander-in-chief had been excessive.
'I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far,' he said, just days after Trump said 'very disappointed' in his former special adviser and campaign donor for criticizing the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' he is attempting to push through the Senate.
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26 minutes ago
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Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Announces Exercise of Warrants for $2.67 Million Gross Proceeds
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In consideration for the exercise of the Existing Warrants for cash, the investors received 6,223,609 G-1 warrants (the "G-1 Warrants") and 2,667,261 G-2 warrants (the "G-2 Warrants) to purchase up to an aggregate of 8,890,870 shares of common stock (the "New Warrants"). The G-1 Warrants are exercisable immediately at an exercise price of $0.425 per common share and will expire five years from the issuance date. The G-2 Warrants are exercisable upon shareholder approval at an exercise price of $0.425 per common share and will expire five years from the issuance date. The shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the Existing Warrants are registered pursuant to effective resale registration statements on Form S-1 (File Nos. 333-267412 and 333-273015). The transaction is expected to close no later than June 20, 2025, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. 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New York Times
26 minutes ago
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Advertisement Breslow, like Posey, is a former player, a pitcher who spent 12 seasons in the majors from 2005 to '17. But while Posey draws praise from Giants players for his presence and leadership, Breslow is perceived by many inside and outside the Red Sox organization as remote, almost robotic. 'Alignment' – that was the fancy word Breslow and Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy kept using Monday to describe what was missing with Devers. Posey spoke in much plainer terms Tuesday when describing Devers as a 'dude' and saying the qualities of such a player 'are not something you can quantify.' Introductory news conferences are always cause for celebration, and carry only so much weight. But the difference in Devers, who often shunned the media during his final months in Boston, was unmistakable. He laughed. He joked. He referenced Giants legend Barry Bonds sitting in the front row and cracked, 'Just looking at him, my game has improved a lot.' 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