The discovery of a staggering $72 billion in improper Social Security payments has sent shockwaves through Washington, highlighting a deep-rooted problem of waste and inefficiency in the federal government. MSNBC host José Diaz-Balart was visibly stunned when confronted with the sheer scale of the issue, a revelation that underscores why the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made Social Security fraud a top priority.
This eye-opening audit was revealed by NBC News reporter Aaron Gilchrist, who explained that over an eight-year period, the Social Security Administration (SSA) had issued improper payments amounting to nearly 1% of its total disbursements.
While most of these payments were overpayments—rather than fraudulent payouts to deceased individuals—the amount remains jaw-dropping. And here’s the kicker: this was only from a cursory audit. A full-scale investigation could reveal much more.
The timing of this revelation is no coincidence. The Trump administration has been aggressively targeting inefficiency across government agencies, with DOGE at the forefront. President Trump’s Feb. 11 executive order expanded DOGE’s oversight, just weeks after its creation on Jan. 20. One of its first major moves? A leadership shakeup at the SSA, where Trump appointed Leland Dudek as acting head following the resignation of Michelle King.
But the Social Security system’s problems don’t stop at overpayments. DOGE’s oversight has already uncovered massive inconsistencies in SSA records, including an astonishing number of individuals listed as centenarians—many of whom, according to the data, are still "alive" and presumably receiving benefits.
Enter Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO, now leading DOGE’s efficiency drive, took to X (formerly Twitter) to highlight just how chaotic the Social Security database really is. According to Musk, the system still lists more than 20 million individuals as being 100 years or older—including 3.9 million aged 130-139, 3.5 million aged 140-149, and over 1.3 million between 150-159 years old. The absurdity of these numbers was not lost on Musk, who quipped, "Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security," complete with rolling-on-the-floor-laughing emojis.
Beyond the humor, Musk’s findings paint a troubling picture of systemic dysfunction. If millions of non-existent individuals are still on the books, how many of them are actively receiving benefits? In another post, Musk warned that "there are FAR more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA. This might be the biggest fraud in history."
The scale of the problem extends beyond Social Security. The Trump administration has already taken drastic action in other areas of government spending, including a Feb. 6 move to lay off more than 95% of the USAID workforce. This came just days after a confrontation between USAID employees and DOGE personnel over access to the agency’s headquarters, as reported by The New York Times. In a broader effort to realign foreign aid spending, Trump also issued an executive order freezing most foreign aid programs, a move backed by 56% of respondents in a Reuters-Ipsos poll.
For taxpayers, the implications of these discoveries are enormous. The SSA’s problems have long been ignored, with fraudulent and improper payments quietly adding to the nation’s fiscal burden. But with Musk and DOGE now aggressively exposing these inefficiencies, the days of unchecked government waste may be numbered.