Howard Lutnick only opens his mouth to change feet.
Donald Trump’s billionaire commerce secretary made another staggering statement on Friday when he suggested that only “fraudsters” and people “stealing” from the government would complain if they didn’t get their Social Security checks next month.
Most Read from MarketWatch
The bizarre, almost surreal comment comes just days after Lutnick, a former Wall Street tycoon, used his position to pump stock in Elon Musk’s company Tesla TSLA, even though he knew that Musk stands to make a staggering $400 million in personal gain for each $1 the stock rises.
“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month,” Lutnick said during a YouTube interview Friday. “My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up and she’ll get it next month.”
By contrast, he said, “a fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining. … Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the process system knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen. Yeah. ’Cause whoever screams is the one stealing.”
The comments, coming just as Musk and his DOGE team slash the number of people working at Social Security and close branch offices, are unlikely to win friends and influence people even among Republicans, let alone anyone else.
Some 69 million Americans rely on Social Security checks every month, including 55 million retirees; 6 million widows, widowers and orphans; and 8 million people with disabilities. And while the checks may be a “nice to have” for people who are better off financially, they are an economic lifeline for millions. The Social Security Administration estimates that among people over age 65, 39% of men and 44% of women rely on their Social Security checks for more than half their monthly income, while for 12% of men and 15% of women over 65, those checks account for “90% or more of their income.”
So while the mother-in-law of a Wall Street billionaire might not worry too much if her monthly check was late, others might worry if their own goes missing.
And if they complain that their check didn’t arrive — particularly if that is the result of the latest DOGE cuts to the Social Security Administration — it may not be because they are “stealing” from the government by asking for the Social Security benefits they earned over a lifetime of work, but because they need them to live on.
Republicans and MAGA Nation should note that Lutnick’s remarks do absolutely nothing to help the Trump administration cut genuine waste, fraud and abuse from federal spending without causing massive panic among all those Americans, including retirees, who are living paycheck to paycheck.
Nor, for that matter, did the sight of Musk, the world’s richest man, joking about budget cuts while waving a chainsaw around on stage recently.
Lutnick’s stunning comments about Social Security “fraud” weren’t his only bizarre remarks during the interview.
“My wife always wants to renovate my house,” he complained at one point. “Every minute I’ve been alive, my wife has wanted to renovate parts of my house.”
Forbes, which recently estimated Lutnick’s personal fortune at $1.5 billion, has also referred to him as “the most hated man on Wall Street.”
During the latest interview, Lutnick admitted that when Musk promised just before the election to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, he had just picked that figure at random.
Lutnick and Musk had previously agreed that Musk would promise to cut $1 trillion, but Musk suddenly doubled the figure when he was interviewed on stage at Madison Square Garden. (Check out the interview, starting around the 39-minute mark, for the full details.)
Naturally, MarketWatch readers weren’t fooled by Musk’s claims, because we ran the math at the time. They also weren’t surprised when Musk abandoned the pre-election pledge after all the votes had been counted.
But it’s an open question how many voters may have been fooled and might still take Musk at his word when he plucks extraordinary budget promises out of the air.
The most rational response is to believe in these savings when we actually see them.
It is one thing to make extravagant promises when the only people at serious risk of financial harm are you and others who have chosen to invest in your company. It is another to make them when you hold the finances of 65 million people in your hands, most of whom can’t afford to buy stocks and haven’t chosen to buy yours.
Meanwhile, if Social Security accidentally fails to send out checks next month, will Elon Musk and Howard Lutnick offer the beneficiaries an interest-free loan?