By The Epoch Times | Created at 2025-03-03 18:58:20 | Updated at 2025-03-03 23:46:32
5 hours ago
Musk said he has to be careful about not going ‘too hard’ on corruption or he could be killed.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk outlined several issues facing the United States in a recent talk with podcast host Joe Rogan, such as the impact of illegal immigration and the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) crackdown on bureaucratic bloat. He also shared his views on the progress of artificial intelligence and plans for SpaceX’s Mars mission.
‘Gigantic Magnetic Force’
Illegal immigrants are being provided with benefits such as Social Security, disability, and Medicaid, which serve as a “gigantic magnetic force” to pull people from across the world into the United States, Musk said on the Feb. 28 “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, which lasted about three hours.
“If you pay people at a standard of living that is above 90 percent of Earth, then you have a very powerful incentive for 90 percent of Earth to come here and to stay here. But if you end the illegal alien fraud, then you turn off that magnet and they leave. And they stop coming and the ones that are here, many of them will simply leave.”
Musk called the entire push to bring in illegal immigrants into the United States a “giant voter scam.”
In the seven swing states, the margin of victory often tends to be around 20,000 votes, he said. “If you put 200,000 illegals in there and they have like an 80 percent likelihood of voting [Democrat], and it’s only a matter of time before they become citizens, then those swing states will not be swing states in the future.”
“And if they are not swing states, we will be a permanent one-party state-country—a permanent deep-blue socialist state.”
Musk said he believes this plan would have succeeded if former Vice President Kamala Harris won the 2024 presidential race. If Democrats had another four years, they may have legalized enough illegal immigrants in swing states to ensure these would no longer swing, he said.
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“Then, they‘d win the House, the Senate, and the presidency. They would then make D.C. into a state, maybe Puerto Rico, get four extra senators, pack the Supreme Court. So then, you’ll have the House, judiciary, Senate, and presidency, all blue.”
“It would have been the end,” Musk said. ”That’s why I went so hardcore for Trump. And that’s why the Democrat machine is so intent on destroying me.”
DOGE Versus the Bureaucracy
Musk said DOGE’s efforts pose a threat to an entrenched bureaucracy.
“Normally, the bureaucracy eats revolutions for breakfast,“ he said. ”This is the first time that they’re not, that the revolution might actually succeed, that we could restore power to the people instead of power to the bureaucracy.”
Musk said DOGE found 20 million dead people marked as alive and eligible when reviewing the Social Security database, with some of them receiving benefits.
“What it looks like is that most of the fraud is not coming from Social Security payments directly, but because they are marked as alive in a Social Security database that they can then get disability, unemployment, fake medical payments, and other things,” he said.
Democrats have criticized DOGE for making recommendations on pulling back funds for various programs and raised concerns about security risks.
Last month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that program cuts were throwing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system into chaos.
Schumer said that DOGE was preparing to recommend cuts to chemotherapy and imaging services, funds for veterans with disabilities, and money aimed at helping veterans suffering from “toxic exposure and burn pits.”
The VA recently said it was reversing course after putting some veterans crisis line hires on hold.
“Even if the VA reverses course, canceling these contracts and firing VA staff is still immensely damaging, very damaging,” Schumer said. “There’s the risk that you can’t re-hire workers back in time, because they’ve moved on to other jobs. And by then, the damage is done.”
Meanwhile, a group of Democrat lawmakers recently opened an investigation into DOGE following reports of two incidents of what they called “alarming security failures.”
The lawmakers said there have been reports that DOGE staff shared sensitive government information through insecure communication channels.
“These incidents—whether due to maliciousness or incompetence—are inexcusable and raise additional questions about DOGE employees’ access to highly sensitive personal and national security information, and what they are doing with it,” the lawmakers wrote.
DOGE has reportedly saved an estimated $105 billion as of March 2, which amounts to more than $652 per taxpayer. The savings came from contract cancellations, fraud, improper payment deletion, and other regulatory savings, according to official data from the initiative’s website.
Mars Mission
As for his dream to establish a human civilization on Mars, Musk said the first voyage to the planet is expected to happen during the next Earth–Mars orbital synchronization event, which typically occurs every 26 months.
The event is set to take place in November or December 2026, when Musk plans to launch SpaceX Starships.
“At first, we’re just going to try to land on Mars and see if we succeed in landing,” he said. “Let’s say we were able to send five ships. Do all five land intact or do we add some craters to Mars? If we add some craters, we’ve got to be a bit more cautious about sending people.”
“We’re going to try to go as fast as possible. You can think of this as really a race against time. Can we make Mars self-sufficient? Before civilization has some sort of future fork in the road where there’s either like a nuclear war or something or we get hit by a meteor or simply civilization might just die with a whimper in adult diapers instead of with a bang.”
Rescuing Astronauts
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stuck aboard the International Space Station for more than eight months. Musk said SpaceX intends to launch a mission to bring the astronauts back in about four weeks. The exact timing will depend on weather and other considerations.
“We send SpaceX Dragon to the space station all the time,” he said. The company has taken over 50 people to orbit and back. The situation is “a bit of a political football,” Musk added.
“We could have brought them back way sooner.”
Corruption and Threat to Life
In his interview, Musk said he does have concerns over his life in his current capacity as head of DOGE.
“I’m not lengthening my lifespan by explaining this stuff to say the least. I was supposed to go back to D.C. How am I going to survive?” he said. “I actually have to be careful that I don’t push too hard on the corruption stuff because it’s gonna get me killed.
“It’s like if I push too hard on the corruption stuff, people get desperate,” he said.
