Elon Musk on military spending: what the evidence says · JRE #2281
SUBJECT: MILITARY SPENDING
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
So like, there's a case where, like I think Senator Collins was telling you about how she gave the Navy $12 billion for more submarines, got no extra submarines, and then held a hearing to say, where'd the $12 billion go?
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Musk relates this as a secondhand anecdote ("I think Senator Collins was telling you"), attributing it to Senator Susan Collins without naming a specific hearing, appropriation, or contract. No Senate Appropriations Committee hearing record, transcript, or Collins press release describing a $12 billion submarine appropriation that produced zero submarines, or Navy officials being unable to say where the money went, has been located. A June 2025 Appropriations Committee hearing where Collins questioned Navy officials covered an Arleigh Burke destroyer contract and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard dry dock expansion, not a $12 billion submarine shortfall. Collins' documented record on submarine funding instead shows her office touting specific, itemized amounts secured for submarine industrial-base and shipyard projects, such as a $100 million infrastructure package for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, figures far smaller than, and different in kind from, the $12 billion sum Musk describes. Real, well-documented cost and schedule problems exist in Navy submarine programs, with the Virginia-class program running behind schedule and the Columbia-class lead boat delayed despite billions in industrial-base investment, but these delays are attributed by Navy oversight processes to shipyard workforce and supply-chain capacity constraints, not to an unaccounted-for $12 billion sum. The claim also fits a broader pattern of Musk and DOGE-aligned officials describing ordinary government spending disputes as fraud or unaccounted-for waste without providing supporting documentation. As stated, the specific $12 billion, zero-submarines, hearing anecdote remains unverified.