Elon Musk Claims He ‘Would Prefer to Provide’ to Pay TSA Staff’ Salaries

Elon Musk “wish to provide to pay the salaries” of struggling TSA staff amid the shutdown, he mentioned on his social media web site Saturday. I, too, wish to provide to pay them, because it occurs. The distinction is that I can’t, however Elon Musk’s web value is a greenback quantity past reckoning, and with none affect in any respect on his private wellbeing, he may simply transfer some property round and scrounge up sufficient liquid money to make it occur.

However, once more, Musk “wish to provide” to pay them. He didn’t say “I’m providing to pay them,” or higher but, “I’ve now paid them.”

I wish to provide to pay the salaries of TSA personnel throughout this funding deadlock that’s negatively affecting the lives of so many People at airports all through the nation

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2026

Perhaps he’ll. We at Gizmodo don’t know the longer term. It will be a reduction if he did.

For the second time in as a few years, TSA brokers are being requested to work free of charge till congressional motion unblocks their paychecks. According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, “A TSA agent doesn’t take advantage of amount of cash[…] and so they’re paying hire and making an attempt to place meals on the desk. They’ll’t truly make ends meet throughout this time.”

Again within the fall, TSA staff held out by means of the longest government shutdown in the history of the U.S.—43 days—but now 376 have quit since this Homeland Safety shutdown began on February 14.

That is clearly bothering the president, who wrote on Truth Social on Saturday that he’ll ship in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers to work rather than TSA this coming Monday. In a separate post, he wrote, “I’ll transfer our sensible and patriotic ICE Brokers to the Airports the place they are going to do Safety like nobody has ever seen earlier than, together with the quick arrest of all Unlawful Immigrants who’ve come into our Nation, with heavy emphasis on these from Somalia.”

Between these two imperfect plans, the one the place the billionaire steps in and pays folks’s salaries is definitely the extra nice one. Sadly there are good causes to not belief that Elon Musk will essentially pay the salaries of TSA brokers anytime quickly, simply because he says he wish to provide to take action.

What seems at first to be an expression of generosity usually seems to simply be Musk making some bizarre level. For example, in 2018 he provided to pay for house water filtration methods for everybody in Flint who met a sure set of parameters for lead contamination. They only needed to reply on Twitter or email some email address and attach their lead test results. It’s not clear that anybody certified for a Musk filtration system, and later, he donated just under half a million dollars for water systems at Flint school drinking fountains. That’s cool and the whole lot, however he certainly didn’t resolve the public distrust in Flint’s water that he was trying to make a point about the entire time.

Then, in 2021, he mentioned if the World Meals Program may “describe on [a] Twitter thread precisely how $6B will remedy world starvation,” that he would promote Tesla inventory as a way to fund that plan.

If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread precisely how $6B will remedy world starvation, I’ll promote Tesla inventory proper now and do it.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021

Cindy McCain, performing in her capability because the director of the World Meals Program tweeted a 1,000-word plan at him, however that plan wasn’t as much as snuff apparently. Musk wasn’t, it appears, making a real provide to aim to finish world starvation. As a substitute, he was making a point about transparency at the World Food Program. At any charge, there’s nonetheless starvation on the earth, and a few of it was likely caused indirectly by the actions of Elon Musk, in line with ProPublica.

So is Elon Musk going to pay TSA staff? Perhaps and possibly not. If he’s, he may need to get offline and simply begin writing the checks.