The world’s richest man is desperate to figure out how lawmakers on Capitol Hill became “strangely wealthy” despite receiving relatively modest public salaries.
Elon Musk, speaking at a town hall in Wisconsin on Sunday night, suggested that his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) look into how certain members of Congress have achieved generational wealth.
One attendee at the town hall asked Musk if DOGE had found evidence of funds wired from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
“They’ll [the government] send the money overseas to one NGO [non-governmental organization], then they’ll go through a bunch of them, and then I’m highly confident that a bunch of that money then comes back to the United States and lands in the pockets of the people you just mentioned,” Musk informed me.
“However, it is a circuitous route. It doesn’t go directly, but let’s just say that there are a lot of strangely wealthy members of Congress, and I’m trying to figure out how they got so rich.
Members of Congress make $174,000 per year. Last year, Musk — whose net worth is estimated by Bloomberg at $330 billion — helped kill legislation to raise congressional pay, but later supported an increase as a means of combating corruption.
Many lawmakers who have spent decades in Congress are millionaires.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has a net worth of about $250 million, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), whose personal fortune is estimated to be $552 million, are among the wealthiest.
Pelosi’s fortune stems primarily from her and her venture capitalist husband Paul’s profitable investments in companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Netflix.
Scott’s personal fortunes are largely due to his work co-founding HCA Healthcare, a company that operates hospitals and other medical facilities throughout Florida, and Solantic, an urgent-care clinic chain. His involvement with both of these companies predates his time in the Senate.
“How do they get $20 million if they’re earning $200,000 a year?” Musk continued to ponder. “We’re going to try to figure it out and certainly stop it from happening.”
Musk traveled to Wisconsin on Sunday to rally support for Brad Schimel, a conservative Waukesha County judge running for the state Supreme Court.
During his visit, Musk distributed $1 million checks to two Wisconsin voters. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has encouraged Wisconsin residents to sign a petition against “activist judges” in order to receive prize money.
“I should say that the reason for the checks is that it’s really just to get attention,” Musk said of the prize money.
“And somewhat inevitably, when I do these things, it causes the legacy media to kind of lose their minds.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race pits Schimel against Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, with the winner wielding significant power over issues such as state abortion laws and redistricting.
Given the ongoing battles between Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled state legislature, control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is considered politically valuable.
