Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Read more
Elon Musk claimed on Fox News Monday that Ukrainians were responsible for X shutting down earlier in the day.
The leader of the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) told Larry Kudlow in an interview that a “massive cyber attack” linked to Ukrainian IP addresses was behind the widespread outages of his social media site.
“There was a massive cyber attack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” Musk claimed.
Earlier in the day the tech billionaire had said in a post that the X shutdown was caused by a “coordinated group” or country, insisting it was “done with a lot of resources.”
Three outages hit X throughout the day, with one lasting two hours.
Hacking group Dark Storm claimed responsibility for the crashes but that hasn’t been verified or confirmed by Musk.
Musk admitted to Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council in Donald Trump’s first administration before moving to Fox News, that the last few weeks with DOGE have been “tough sledding.”
Kudlow pointed out protests at Tesla stores, vandalism against Tesla vehicles, and arson at charging stations and dealerships.
“Shots fired, literally,” Musk responded.
He also noted that he’s continuing to run his companies during the DOGE work with “great difficulty.”
But he’s sticking to his DOGE mission, along with his crew of 100, soon to be 200, he told Kudlow.
Musk vowed to cut Social Security and Medicare to save the nation money even as Trump and the Republican plan to enact a $4.7 trillion tax cut.
Musk again complained about a “massive amount of fraud” in Social Security, this time claiming it adds up to “half a trillion dollars” — without providing any evidence .
“It’s a huge number,” Kudlow responded.
“Yes,” said Musk.
Musk also insisted without evidence in a post on X Saturday that recent protests against him at Tesla dealerships across the nation (which ballooned Sunday) were arranged by his critics.
He blamed the Democratic fundraising group ActBlue for orchestrating and funding the Tesla protests, citing a mysterious “investigation.” He named ActBlue “funders,” including liberal philanthropist George Soros and billionaire foe Reid Hoffman.
Musk, apparently still searching for facts for his claim, added in his post: “If you know anything about this, please post in replies. Thanks, Elon.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has also baselessly claimed that acrimonious town hall meetings confronting Republican representatives in Red states over DOGE job cuts have also been funded by Soros.
To avoid the negative news stories erupting from the meetings, Republicans have been instructed by the GOP to skip holding the town halls so lawmakers can’t be confronted by their furious constituents.
Hoffman wrote on X of Musk’s accusation against him: “I never funded anyone for Tesla protests.”
It’s “clear Americans are angry” with Musk, he added.
“It’s easier to explain away their anger, than to accept that actions have consequences,” Hoffman wrote, referring to Musk.
Hoffman pointed out that ActBlue is a payment processing platform for Democratic candidates, and doesn’t organize actions.
Protesters demonstrated at more than 50 Tesla dealerships across the U.S. and in Barcelona, London and Lisbon last week, according to CNN.
Eight people were arrested at a protest at a Tesla dealership in New York City on Sunday, and hundreds of demonstrators railed against Musk at a dealership in Chicago.
