Elon Musk regaled Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) with tales of "magic" federal computers he claimed made money "out of thin air" that were discovered by his colleagues at the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk sat down with Cruz for his podcast that was recorded at The White House.
In a clip posted to Musk's social media platform X, Cruz began, "One of the things you told me about is ..."
"It's crazy!" Musk interjected.
Cruz continued, "Is what you called, 'Magic Money Computers.' So tell us about it, 'cause I never heard of that 'til you brought it up."
"Okay, so, you may think like the government computers all talk to each other, they synchronize, they add up what funds are going somewhere. And, that they're coherent," Musk said. "And that the numbers that you're presented as a Senator are actually the real numbers."
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"One would think!" Cruz exclaimed.
"One would think — they're not," Musk said. "I mean they're not totally wrong, but they're probably off by five percent or 10 percent in some cases. So, I call it 'Magic Money Computer': any computer that can make money out of thin air. That's magic money.
"So, how does that work," Cruz asked.
"It just issues payments."
"And you said there's something like 11 of these computers at Treasury that are sending out trillions in payments?" Cruz asked.
Musk answered that they're mostly at the Department of Treasury, some are at the Department of Health and Human Services, and some are at the Department of Defense — departments to which he and his team have been granted unfettered access.
"We've found now 14 'Magic Money Computers,'" Musk claimed. "They just send money out of nothing."
Musk and his team with DOGE said they were working to find $1 trillion in government "waste, fraud, and abuse" this fiscal year in September. But according to National Public Radio, "DOGE's moves so far to cancel contracts, end leases and push federal agencies to reduce their workforces barely make a dent in the government's overall balance sheet — even if you take DOGE's savings claims at face value."
Listen to the "Verdict with Ted Cruz" podcast here.