J.D. Vance Reveals How Trump Will Use Musk to Target Social Security

J.D. Vance’s recent comments regarding Elon Musk’s potential role in a second Trump administration are ringing alarm bells for some.

In the past few weeks, Trump has confirmed that he plans to create a government efficiency task force headed by Musk to reform government spending. Musk has expressed enthusiasm about the role, tweeting, “I can’t wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go.”

The purpose of the proposed task force has been an object of skepticism from budget experts. And some critics have cited Musk’s stewardship of X/Twitter—namely his decision to gut the social media company’s staff after purchasing it—as a cause for concern if the billionaire were to wield influence over vital government programs.

Last week, Vance appeared on a podcast where the host asked whether he had spoken to Musk about his “plan” regarding the task force. Vance’s answer about his talks with Musk was vague, but he specifically mentioned the Department of Defense and Social Security.

“I’ve spoken with Elon a little bit about [the task force],” Vance said, adding that the Trump campaign envisions establishing “an organization with very smart people from the private sector and a few smart people from government” that decides, “‘How are we going to fix all of the broken inefficiencies?’

“And the thing that’s complicated about this, man, is it’s going to look much different in, say, the Department of Defense versus Social Security,” he continued.

After the clip was republished by a liberal group on X, many users bristled at the implication that the world’s wealthiest man could help make key policy decisions regarding Social Security.

“Who elected Elon to decide ANYTHING?! Look what he did to Twitter & its diligent employees—at a WHIM,” posted one user. Another wrote, “Elon Musk is an arrogant Billionaire. He has no understanding or compassion for those who depend on Social Security. Everyone on Social Security should be very concerned if Musk and Trump are making decisions.”

Republicans have long publicly promised to not touch Social Security, despite creating plans that would imperil the national benefits program.

J.D. Vance can’t have it both ways.

The Republican vice presidential nominee has spent considerable time touting violent rhetoric: He has elevated a dangerous conspiracy theory that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, and baselessly insisted that liberal leaders are the ones inciting attempted assassinations against Donald Trump. (Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot at Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13, was a registered Republican. Ryan Wesley Routh, who attempted to shoot Trump at one of his golf courses on Sunday, voted for Trump in 2016 and supported a Nikki Haley-Vivek Ramaswamy Republican ticket.)

But while speaking before a crowd in Sparta, Michigan, on Tuesday, Vance tried to frame himself as someone above the noise, blaming President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the divisive attacks.

“We of course want to be as careful as possible and make it so we cut out the ridiculous rhetoric that I think has put a giant target on Donald Trump’s back,” Vance said. “All of us, whether we’re Republicans, Democrats, or independents, all of us can do a better job at showing respect at trying to debate our differences without going into personal attacks.

“Don’t lecture Donald Trump about softening his rhetoric after two people tried to kill him,” he continued, speaking directly to the media. “It’s ridiculous. Tell Kamala Harris. Tell Joe Biden, tell all of her surrogates who are saying things like ‘Donald Trump needs to be eliminated.’ They need to cut that crap out, or somebody’s going to get hurt.”

But just moments later, Vance was back on his usual grind. He likened Harris’s social policies to a “path of slavery,” and even challenged an imaginary assassin to break into the convention center where he was speaking to face off against a crowd of Trump supporters.

“With close to 500 patriots in the state of Michigan in this building right now and outside, I’d like to see an assassin try to come in this room,” Vance said. “They’ve come to the wrong place if you try to walk into this place right now.”

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is calling out Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

In a long post on X Tuesday, Greene said Johnson is “leading a fake fight that he has no intention of actually fighting,” regarding his plan to attach the SAVE Act, which would bar noncitizens from voting, to the government spending bill.

“This is classic bait and switch that will enrage the base, only one month before the election, when they find out they have been tricked and let down again,” Greene wrote. “The only way to make the SAVE Act a law would be to refuse to pass a [continuing resolution] until the Senate agrees to pass the SAVE Act and Biden agrees to sign it into law.”

Johnson announced earlier Tuesday that he would attach the SAVE Act, which is based on faulty data and seeks to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, to a six-month continuing resolution to fund the government. That’s an obvious nonstarter for Democrats.

It’s not surprising that Greene would publicly disagree with Republican leadership, but Greene closed her message by saying, “Speaker Johnson needs to go to the Democrats, who he has worked with the entire time, to get the votes he needs to do what he is already planning to do.”

Greene is known for being one of the most right-wing members of Congress and is not known for working with Democrats or even supporting bipartisan efforts. She is better known for feuding with the opposing party, especially when she insulted Representative Jasmine Crockett’s appearance earlier this year.

While Greene has publicly supported the SAVE Act, it seems that even she is seeing the futility of attaching it to government funding while it has near-total opposition from Democrats. Her post notes that the bill could only pass with a threat to shut down the government, which, according to her, Johnson doesn’t want to happen. Plus, Greene said, the SAVE Act will be passed too late to affect any ballots in the November election, as ballots are already being prepared in several states, especially with early voting.

Johnson faces a tall order in trying to pass a resolution to fund the government, and he needs every vote he can get, particularly with a narrow Republican majority. If even extremists like Greene are saying he needs Democratic support, then the speaker should reevaluate his plan before the government shuts down.

One of the country’s most accurate polls found an impressively slim margin between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris among likely voters in Iowa.

Trump was polling at 47 percent, while Harris was polling at 43 percent among likely Iowa voters, according to the most recent survey published Sunday by the Des Moines Register/Mediacom and conducted by Selzer & Co.

While this poll shows that Trump still maintains the lead in Iowa, its results may actually indicate bad news for the former president, according to CNN’s analyst Harry Enten.

Selzer polls have a history of being uniquely accurate when it comes to Trump, while other polls fail to capture voter preferences.

In 2020, Seltzer’s Iowa survey found that Trump was up by seven points the day before polls opened, while other estimates had Biden in a far more favorable position come Election Day. Trump won by eight points. The same thing happened in 2016: The Selzer poll saw Trump ahead of Hillary Clinton by seven points, and he ended up winning by nine. Trump’s two Iowa wins have been by much bigger margins than the one predicted now between the former president and Harris.

The new Selzer survey shows Trump leading Harris by only four points, with a margin of error of 3.9 points. Not only does this put her in a better position to win than Biden or Clinton, but it also shows a remarkable leap from where Biden was only three months ago. The previous Selzer poll from June had Trump beating Biden by a whopping 18 points.

What’s more, the current Selzer poll confirms the indication from other polls that the presidential race between Harris and Trump is far closer than previous cycles.

Enten also suggested that the close race between Harris and Trump in Iowa could signal a wider shift increasing her favorability in neighboring states such as Wisconsin, which has similar voter demographics. Marquette University Law School’s most recent poll put Harris at 52 percent to Trump’s 48 percent among likely Wisconsin voters.

Speaking at an event in Georgia Monday night, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance noted the need to tone down the national political rhetoric. His remarks continue the Trump campaign’s efforts to lay this weekend’s attempt on Donald Trump’s life at the feet of the Democrats and their “inflammatory” rhetoric.

“I do think that we should take this opportunity to call for a reduction in the ridiculous and inflammatory political rhetoric coming from too many corners of our politics,” Vance said. “Look, we can disagree with one another,” he continued. “We can debate one another. But we cannot tell the American people that one candidate is a fascist and if he’s elected it is going to be the end of American democracy.”

The statement hasn’t landed well online, where many have pointed out that much of the extreme rhetoric of the day comes from Vance’s own corner. In the past week, the Trump campaign has claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating pets and, following the assassination attempt, said that Biden and Harris are “the enemy from within,” while urging them to tamp down their rhetoric.

And Trump himself has often framed his political opponents as fascists hell-bent on destroying the country. On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump has called Kamala Harris a “radical left Marxist Communist fascist” and said of her policies: “This is Communist. This is Marxist. This is fascist.”

In May, after being convicted by a Manhattan jury on 34 felony counts, Trump said the Biden administration is “destroying our country,” adding, “We’re living in a fascist state.” In November 2023, he vowed to “root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” Even back in 2020, Trump raised the bogeyman of “left-wing fascism” in the Democratic Party, saying, “Fascists! They are fascists. Some of them, not all of them, but some of them. But they’re getting closer and closer.”

While the Trump campaign may, in a dubious effort to pin political violence on the current administration, call for a cooling down of political rhetoric, Trump and the right evidently bear more than a little responsibility for its current temperature.