Elon Musk, now deeply embedded in the U.S. government, sat down with Joe Rogan for a three-hour conversation on Friday night, touching on everything from government fraud to AI. But things went off the rails when mid-discussion, Elon told Rogan to ask Grok—his AI chatbot—whether there was any gold left in Fort Knox. “Are you a f—— conspiracy theorist?” Grok shot back. Rogan laughed, Elon smirked, and the internet exploded with hilarious memes. The “Is the gold still there?” question has been floating around for a few weeks now, and Elon has even shown his openness to replacing the gold with Bitcoin, as Cryptopolitan reported last month. That was just one of the many bizarre, headline-grabbing moments from the interview, which covered everything from Elon’s role in Trump’s administration to unverified claims of rampant fraud in federal agencies. Elon, as usual, came armed with big statements, vague details, and no shortage of controversy. Elon dodges specifics on DOGE’s government cuts Elon’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been slashing its way through federal agencies, but exactly how it operates remains a mystery. Rogan pushed Elon for details, but he dodged specifics. “These are cuts that DOGE recommends to the department,” Elon said. “Usually these recommendations are followed, but these are recommendations that are then confirmed by the department.” The exact number of DOGE employees? Unclear. Elon said the team started with 40 to 100 people but didn’t specify how large it has grown. Some reports suggest the workforce has expanded significantly. Congress and federal officials have raised serious concerns about DOGE’s hiring process, which has brought in staff as young as 19. DOGE’s access to federal data has also triggered nearly a dozen lawsuits. Elon defended the agency’s vetting process, insisting that “anyone from DOGE has to go through the same vetting process that those federal employees went through.” He added , “If for example there’s a security clearance needed, the DOGE person has to have that same security clearance, so there’s no reduction in security.” Fraud claims, missing gold theories, and social security chaos Elon doubled down on claims that fraud is running rampant in Social Security. He told Rogan that DOGE found “20 million dead people marked as alive” in the system. Rogan asked if those people were actually receiving benefits. Elon’s response? “Yes.” But when pressed for specifics—like what percentage of those 20 million were actually getting money—Elon didn’t have an answer. Social Security’s acting commissioner, Lee Dudek, later pushed back on Elon’s claims. “The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits,” Dudek said . Elon then pivoted to FEMA, claiming the agency spent $59 million on migrant housing. A few days earlier, Elon had posted the same claim on X, crediting DOGE with uncovering the spending. But the funding had already been made public and approved by Congress. Despite this, four FEMA officials were fired the day after Elon’s post. The officials were reportedly tied to hotel funding for migrants in New York City. Then came the Fort Knox moment. Elon talks Trump, secret tech, and the Nazi controversy Though the administration has said that Elon is a White House advisor, President Donald Trump has said that Elon is leading the way with DOGE’s efforts to slash the federal government. At Trump’s first Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Elon had an outsized role, with Trump giving him the floor for a large chunk of it. “This is a revolutionary Cabinet and maybe the most revolutionary Cabinet since the first revolution,” Elon said. The conversation then shifted to secret technology. Elon, who has long pushed for transparency in space tech, was asked whether private contractors were hiding advanced propulsion technology. “I don’t think they’re hiding it from me,” Elon said, implying he’d know if they were. He didn’t expand on the subject, leaving plenty of room for speculation. One of the more heated moments came when Rogan brought up a recent controversy. During Trump’s inauguration celebration, Elon made a gesture that some compared to a Nazi salute. The legacy media latched onto the moment, especially after Elon followed it up by posting Nazi-related puns on X. Elon denied any wrongdoing. “It was obviously meant in the most positive spirit possible,” Elon told Rogan. “Now I can never point at things diagonally.” He went further, accusing the media of deliberately twisting the story. “It’s deliberate propaganda,” Elon said. “They know it was obviously not meant in a negative way. I’d literally said, ‘my heart goes out to you.’ It was very positive. My entire speech was very positive.” Despite the backlash, Elon refused to back down. The controversy has only added to the growing political storm surrounding his government role. Cryptopolitan Academy: Want to grow your money in 2025? Learn how to do it with DeFi in our upcoming webclass. Save Your Spot
