Shooting Fish in Barrel

Anti-Trump Idiocy

One of the major problems with information today is how to sort through all the information available. A modest use of AI makes this possible. In today’s Public Pulse World Herald, a writer makes the following claim:

So tempting for someone to believe the writer, isn’t it? Merely asking “What was Elon Musk referring to when he said Social Security was giving loans to children?”could provide answers, but who to ask? I ask AI. You can use various AI searches such as Grok, CoPilot or in my case, Perplexity. And the result is below:

Elon Musk's comment about "loans to children" refers to fraudulent activity involving stolen Social Security numbers, which allowed minors and even deceased individuals to secure loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA). He highlighted this issue in support of new SBA verification rules introduced by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative he oversees. These rules now require applicants to provide their date of birth and bar loans to individuals under 18 or over 120 years old, aiming to prevent fraud.

Reports revealed that during 2020–2021, over $333 million in loans were issued to individuals listed as over 115 years old. Additionally, Musk humorously pointed out cases where young children, including a nine-month-old infant, allegedly received SBA loans due to these loopholes. His remarks underscore concerns about outdated Social Security records being exploited for fraudulent purposes1234.

Citations:

1. https://economictimes.com/news/international/global-trends/no-more-loans-to-babies-or-the-dead-elon-musks-doge-backs-sbas-crackdown-on-fraudulent-loans/articleshow/119435488.cms

2. https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/no-more-loans-to-babies-or-the-dead-elon-musk-on-sba-fraud-glbs-2698350-2025-03-24

3. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-backs-crackdown-sba-023638949.html

4. https://vinnews.com/2025/03/24/elon-musk-claims-children-under-11-secured-330-million-in-sba-loans/

5. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5189448-trump-musk-social-security-fraud/

6. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/elon-musk-social-security-concern-trump-allies-rcna197527

7. https://www.yahoo.com/news/know-claim-doge-stopped-payments-013000966.html

8. https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-donald-trump-doge-b21b74f56f30012a6450a629e7232a1a

9. https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/policy/dollar330m-sba-loan-scandal-blockchain-answer

10. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-says-no-more-loans-to-as-doge-announces-new-measures-to-prevent-fraudulent-applications-using-stolen-social-security-numbers/articleshow/119422369.cms

11. https://www.npr.org/2025/03/24/nx-s1-5337999/elon-musk-doge-social-security-cuts

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Answer from Perplexity: pplx.ai/share

Where did the original writer get their bad information? Why did the editors not catch it and add comment or remove the paragraph? Unknown. Yet, now we know what Elon Musk is up to.

Gees, for doing all this “hard” work, don’t you think I deserve a cup of coffee?

https://buymeacoffee.com/andrewlsullivan