Elon Musk makes baseless claim about large number of dead people on government payroll

Elon Musk suggested Wednesday that a number of federal employees who did not respond to an email requesting a summary of their achievements from the previous week could be "dead" or "not real people," but offered no facts to back it up. 

"We think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can't respond, and — and some people who are not real people," Musk said.

President Trump echoed Musk's claims moments later to reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting.