An Elon Musk’s closest confidentialists has played a new role in social security administration, a development that could be politically flammable, given the popularity of the program with voters and Mr Musk’s obvious intention to make significant changes to the organization, has a new role in the popularity of the program with voters.
The investor, Antonio Gracias, who has served on Musk Tesla and SpaceX’s business boards, has begun work in the administration as part of the cost of the cost of considering Musk known as the Government Efficiency Division, according to documents seen by the New York Times and two.
Of the more than 50 people who have joined Mr Musk in Washington, almost no one has as extensive history with him as Mr Gracias. The men met two decades ago and at that time, Mr Gracias has become one of Mr Musk’s most reliable advisers.
The involvement of such a close ally with the Social Security Administration suggests that Mr Musk has revised the priority to the organization. In recent weeks, the billionaire technology has regularly talked about alleged fraud within the system. Two weeks ago, he referred to social security as “the largest Ponzi plan of all time”, and this week claimed that the scam on the program and other significant costs were “the big one to eliminate”.
Republicans have long been privatized or cut in social security, but have avoided following the fear of political overthrow. Even when top Republicans argue that they simply want to boost the program’s finances, the Democrats have made a political opportunity in Mr Musk’s possible turmoil in the organization.
Nine Doge members have arrived at Social Security Administration in recent days. They include Mr Gracias and two other men working in his investment company, Valor Equity Partners – Jon Koval, Vice President of the Investment Team, and Payton Rehling, Data Engineer – according to documents seen by the Times.
At the beginning of February, while talking to Mr Musk’s allies in a podcast episode of “All-in”, Mr Gracias minimized his role with the cost cutting group. “I’m a little inside and I try to help where I can, but I’m not there full time,” he said.
But he said that he and his team at Valor had checked the audits of the Social Security Administration and that he had been concerned about the magnitude of the so -called confidence funds created by government accounts to make sure the Americans would receive their full benefits. Mr Gracias said he believed that this showed that there were “material weaknesses” in the system.
Social security trust funds have increased in decades, as Americans paid more taxes on the program than they have made benefits. The tax revenue submitted to trust funds did not determine there. The federal government used cash to pay its regular expenses over time. In return, the Treasury gave special social security bonds that it could redeem to help pay for the program in the future.
As Americans now get more benefits than they pay for taxes, social security has received in these special bonds-which cannot be purchased or sold by the public-by delaying the so-called trust funds. In short, there is no real money in trust funds.
The exact outlines of Mr Gracias’ role, mentioned earlier than Bloomberg News, are not known. Neither Mr Gracias nor the Social Security Service responded to requests for comments.
Mr. Gracias met with Mr. Musk through David Sacks, a business capital who is now a leading official of Trump’s administration. He was the first faithful to Tesla and personally borrowed Mr Musk $ 1 million in the first days of the company, according to a testimony by Mr Gracias in a recent court case. Men and their families have been interrupted in the Bahamas and passed on to Jackson Hole, Wyo.
As Mr Musk’s career and wealth flourished, so did Mr. Gracias, who tied his personal brand to the world -renowned businessman. Valor has invested in at least five of Mr Musk’s companies. In 2022, when Mr Musk bought the social media platform X, then known as Twitter, for $ 44 billion, he hit Mr Gracias to manage the financial finances.
Mr Gracias, who moved to Miami from Chicago in 2021, spent time at the Donald J. Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Private Association during the presidential transition and was one of many of Mr Musk’s friends who interviewed the staff who tried to participate in Trump’s administration. Mr Gracias told “All-in” that he and Mr Musk had admired the government’s supposed inability to attend his expenditure.
“I was in Mar-a-Lago with Elon trying to locate: How do the money really flow?” He said. “No one could tell us how it really flows. Where does it come out? People didn’t know.”
Mr. Gracias, who graduated from Georgetown’s External Services School, was in the capital of the nation in January to accompany Mr Musk at a dinner at the Elite Alfalfa Club, where he and Mr Musk were mixed with members of the Political Foundation.
Mr Gracias has undergone political reappearance. He attended the September 2016 presidential debate as a supporter of Hillary Clinton and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Joseph R. Biden Jr. the 2020 campaign.
Sometimes, Mr. Gracias’ language was more bold than Mr Musk. In the episode of Podcast in February, Mr Musk’s statement said that 10 % of the federal budget was probably fraud “may be low”. He has also argued that the country is flirting with “kleptocracy” and “Latin American empire”.
He has described himself as a loyal supporter of the billionaire, regardless of the pursuit. “I am 100% with you Elon,” Mr Gracias wrote to Mr Musk in a March 2022 text message as he waged his fight to buy Twitter, as revealed in legal deposits.
Andrew Duehren They contributed reports.
