Elon Musk panics as DOGE-cut bodies start piling up: 'He's in damage control mode'

Trillionaire Elon Musk spent Monday night posting and re-sharing posts online in an apparent effort to defend his record spearheading massive cuts to U.S. foreign aid – which reporting increasingly suggests may end up causing millions of preventable deaths – and was subsequently hammered by critics.

“Musk killed millions by abruptly stopping food and medical supply shipments,” wrote Nick Mark, a podcast host and Washington-based physician.

“At the time he gleefully celebrated ‘feeding [the U.S. Agency for International Development] (USAID) to the woodchipper’ by waving a chainsaw around high on ketamine. Now he’s in damage control mode. This is his legacy. Don’t let him off the hook.”

Over the weekend, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) accused Musk of potentially causing more than 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 due to the U.S. foreign aid cuts he spearheaded while leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk called Khanna a “liar,” said he “should be in prison” and threatened to sue him.

Several deaths have already been attributed to the USAID cuts.

Through multiple posts Monday, Musk continued to deny that the U.S. foreign aid cuts he spearheaded had caused even a single death.

“There is not even a single dead child!” Musk wrote in a social media post on X. “If there were, it would be worldwide headline news!”

Musk oversaw around $60 billion in cuts to U.S. foreign aid while working with the Trump administration, leaving “few surviving” USAID projects in his wake. Jeremy Konyndyk, a humanitarian policy expert, was quick to correct the record regarding Musk’s denials.

“This is some wild backpedaling bulls--- from Elon,” Konyndyk wrote in a social media post on X. “DOGE clear-cut (more than) 80% of USAID programs without assessing what harms would ensue. And when USAID staff tried to flag those harms, they were forced out.”