Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Elon Musk Seizes Treasury Payments, Calls USAID ‘Criminal’ in Shock Power Move

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Elon Musk Seizes Treasury Payments, Calls USAID ‘Criminal’ in Shock Power Move · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:04
  Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
• 0:07
  the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
• 0:18
  So what exactly is Elon Musk doing with the US Treasury's
• 0:20
  payment systems and how did he gain complete access to federal
• 0:25
  financial operations? Also, he said that the US aid
• 0:30
  would said it's a criminal organization that should die.
• 0:35
  These are the questions we're going to ask today and we're
• 0:37
  going to try to answer some of these things.
• 0:39
  As his DOGE team is actively halting payments to government
• 0:43
  contractors. This is raising concerns with
• 0:47
  watchdog groups, but the extent of his influence over federal
• 0:51
  funds. Now, Elon Musk announced on Next
• 0:55
  that his Department of Government Efficiency is
• 0:57
  shutting down payments to certain federal contractors,
• 1:00
  including Lutheran Family Services.
• 1:02
  He framed the move as an effort to eliminate corruption and
• 1:05
  waste. He said the corruption and waste
• 1:08
  is being rooted out in real time.
• 1:12
  And he claimed the Doge staffers were rapidly shutting down
• 1:16
  payments to organizations he described as unnecessary or
• 1:21
  fraudulent. Now, is it his place to say
• 1:26
  those things? Is it his place to make that
• 1:28
  judgement if they're fraudulent or unnecessary?
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  I mean, it's he's part of the Doge now.
• 1:34
  Government efficiency. But is this illegal?
• 1:38
  Let me know in the comments if you have them on your podcast
• 1:41
  platform. Now, the Treasury Department has
• 1:44
  not confirmed the extent of Musk's access, but his comments
• 1:47
  suggest he may be able to directly influence payment
• 1:50
  processing systems. President Donald Trump had
• 1:53
  previously tasked Musk with modernizing federal information
• 1:56
  technology, but Musk's actions appear to extend far beyond that
• 2:00
  mandate. Treasury officials have
• 2:03
  historically maintained that their role is simply to process
• 2:06
  payments approved by individual agencies based on congressional
• 2:10
  appropriations. Now, Musk's involvement in
• 2:13
  government financial operations took a new turn when top
• 2:16
  security officials at the US Agency of International
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  Development of USAID were placed on leave after refusing to grant
• 2:25
  DOGE staffers access to sensitive financial systems.
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  Now, USAID personnel argued the DOGE employees lack the
• 2:32
  necessary security clearances to review classified financial
• 2:36
  data. Now Musk responded aggressively,
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  like he does sometimes calling USAID a criminal organization
• 2:43
  that should die. This inflammatory statement came
• 2:45
  in the USADSAID's website temporarily went offline, which
• 2:51
  further fueled speculation about Musk's expanding influence over
• 2:54
  federal agencies. USAID has long been responsible
• 2:58
  for distributing billions of dollars in foreign aid,
• 3:01
  including humanitarian assistance and economic
• 3:03
  development programs. Now, the broader financial
• 3:07
  infrastructure Musk is targeting handles 10s of billions of
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  dollars in daily transactions for the federal government.
• 3:13
  These systems manage payments for Social Security, Medicare,
• 3:19
  federal grants, and contracts with private companies.
• 3:23
  The scale of these transactions raises serious questions about
• 3:26
  the extent to which Musk's team is making unilateral decisions
• 3:30
  about where government money flows.
• 3:33
  Last week, David Lebrick, the most senior career official at
• 3:38
  the Treasury Department, stepped down from his role overseeing
• 3:41
  the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the division
• 3:44
  responsible for processing federal payments.
• 3:46
  His departure followed increasing tensions over Musk's
• 3:49
  growing involvement in Treasury operations.
• 3:53
  Now, while it remains unclear if Musk played a direct role in the
• 3:56
  resignation, the timing has fueled speculation that Musk's
• 3:59
  presence alone is creating friction within the federal
• 4:03
  financial system. Now, Trump endorsed Musk's
• 4:06
  actions during a conversation with reporters, calling him a
• 4:09
  big cost cutter. And the former president
• 4:11
  acknowledged that while he may not always agree with Musk's
• 4:14
  approach, he believed Musk is doing a great job and is very
• 4:17
  much into cutting the budget of our federal government.
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  And quote now, Trump's comments indicate that Musk's efforts
• 4:24
  have the backing of his administration, even if they are
• 4:26
  causing disruptions within federal agencies.
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  Senator Rob Wyden, the top Democrat Democrat on the Senate
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  Finance Committee, raised alarms about Musk's access to treasury
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  system, stating the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, had
• 4:42
  granted DOGE full authority over payment operations.
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  Wyden specifically pointed out that this could impact Social
• 4:48
  Security and Medicare benefits, as well as payments to govern
• 4:51
  contractors, including those that directly compete with
• 4:54
  Musk's own businesses. Now, the DOGE team discovered,
• 4:59
  among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury
• 5:02
  were instructed always to approve payments, even to known
• 5:05
  fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a
• 5:10
  payment in their entire career, not even once, says Elon Musk.
• 5:15
  Though he did not provide evidence for this assertion, his
• 5:17
  post implied the previous Treasury officials had exercised
• 5:21
  little to no oversight in preventing potentially illegal
• 5:24
  payments. Now, the Treasury Department has
• 5:27
  a Do Not Pay system designed to flag fraudulent transactions.
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  The system was implemented to prevent improper payments,
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  including those two entities with criminal records or
• 5:36
  outstanding deaths to the federal government.
• 5:39
  And Treasury officials have not commented on whether Musk's
• 5:42
  allegations of unchecked payments are accurate now.
• 5:46
  One of Doge's recent actions involved halting payments by the
• 5:50
  Department of Health and Human Services, the HHS, the Lutheran
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  Family Services, which is a nonprofit organizations that
• 5:58
  provides aid to refugees and other vulnerable populations.
• 6:02
  HHS and Lutheran Family Services have not publicly responded to
• 6:07
  Musk's claim or the decision to suspend their payments.
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  Now, Musk's critics argue that his efforts could disrupt
• 6:13
  essential services and raise legal concerns, but whether he
• 6:17
  has the authority to control federal payments.
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  Others worried that his influence over financial systems
• 6:23
  could lead to conflicts of interest, particularly if
• 6:25
  payments to competing companies are affected.
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  Now the broader question is whether Musk's role in
• 6:31
  government spending is within legal bounds.
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  Federal law grants agencies authority over their own
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  budgets, with Treasury primarily acting as an administrative
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  entity to just process the payments.
• 6:42
  Now, Musk's apparent ability to override those approvals
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  challenges the traditional structure of government
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  financial oversight. Checks and balances, people.
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  That's usually what we do in the United States.
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  And it looks like that's might not be happening anymore,
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  according to Elon Musk. And while Trump and his
• 7:01
  administration continue to support Musk's efforts,
• 7:03
  congressional leaders are increasingly scrutinizing his
• 7:06
  influence. Lawmakers could push for
• 7:08
  hearings to investigate whether Doge's actions aligned with
• 7:11
  legal guidelines and whether Musk's role should be reigned
• 7:14
  in. Also, let me know in the
• 7:16
  comments if you think Elon Musk is doing the right thing or the
• 7:20
  wrong thing here. He's in the right, let me know
• 7:22
  why. If he's doing something wrong,
• 7:24
  also let me know why. But for now, Musk's DOGE team is
• 7:28
  operating with a level of authority the few outside
• 7:31
  officials seem able to challenge.
• 7:34
  His claims of rooting out corruption have resonated with
• 7:37
  some in government, but the lack of transparency surrounding his
• 7:40
  actions raises concerns about his accountability and Doge's
• 7:44
  accountability, too. He has power over federal
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  financial operations right now, this drawing scrutiny
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  particularly as he expands his reach beyond the technology
• 7:55
  modernization initiative he was originally tasked with by Donald
• 7:59
  Trump. Now, whether his efforts will
• 8:02
  lead to real cost savings or significant legal challenges
• 8:05
  remains an open question. We don't know what he's doing
• 8:08
  behind the scenes, there's no transparency and he's cutting
• 8:13
  off funding for a lot of services.
• 8:20
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 8:22
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 8:24
  If you could take a second and hit this subscribe or the follow
• 8:27
  button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
• 8:29
  on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
• 8:32
  It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
• 8:34
  miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
• 8:37
  minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
• 8:40
  And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
• 8:43
  to patreon.com/stagezero and please take care of yourselves
• 8:49
  and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.