A Close Elon Musk Friend Joins His Effort on Social Security [View all]

Source: New York Times

A Close Elon Musk Friend Joins His Effort on Social Security

The involvement of Antonio Gracias, an investor who has known Elon Musk for two decades, suggests that Mr. Musk has made overhauling the Social Security Administration a priority.

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A private equity investor who is one of Elon Musk’s closest confidants has taken a new role in the Social Security Administration, a development that could be politically combustible given the program’s popularity with voters and Mr. Musk’s apparent intent to make major changes at the agency. The investor, Antonio Gracias, who has served on the boards of Mr. Musk’s businesses Tesla and SpaceX, has started a job at the administration as part of the Musk-led cost-cutting effort.

The involvement of such a close ally with the Social Security Administration suggests that Mr. Musk has made overhauling the agency a priority; in recent weeks, the tech billionaire has regularly talked about supposed fraud inside the system. Two weeks ago, he referred to Social Security as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” and this week he claimed that fraud in the program and other major entitlement spending was “the big one to eliminate.”

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/us/politics/elon-musk-antonio-gracias-social-security-administration.html