WASHINGTON (PNN) - June 1, 2025 - Outgoing DOGE overseer Elon Musk has hit back at claims made by U2 singer Bono that 300,000 people have “already died” because of cuts made to USAID.
Appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the Irish singer declared, “It is not proven, but surveillance suggests 300,000 people have already died from this cut-off, this hard cut of USAID.”
The key phrase there being “it is not proven.”
Bono added, “So, there is food rotting in boats and warehouses. This will f**k you off.”
“No (Amerikan) will be happy. There are 50,000 tons of food that are stored in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai, and wait for it, Houston, Texas, that is rotting,” he further claimed.
“The people who know the codes at the warehouses are fired, they are gone,” the singer also suggested.
He then asked Rogan, “What do you think? That is not (Amerika), is it?”
Rogan responded with actual facts, noting, “There have been a lot of organizations that have done a tremendous amount of good all throughout the world. Also, for sure, it was a money-laundering operation.
“There was no oversight, for sure, billions of dollars were missing,” he continued, adding “In fact, trillions that are unaccounted for were sent off to (who knows) where, because there are no receipts.”
“The way Elon Musk described it, he said if any of this was done by a public company, the company would be delisted, and the executives would be in prison. But in the (Fascist Police States of Amerika), this is standard,” Rogan emphasized.
Bono’s claim may be based on projections by Brooke Nichols, a mathematician and infectious disease professor at Boston University, who modeled an estimated 300,000 deaths, with over 200,000 of them being children. However, these projections are highly speculative, come with significant uncertainty, and are not supported by any facts.
Elon Musk responded to the comments, calling Bono a liar, an idiot and a retard.