President Donald Trump has said multiple times that he has no plans to cut Social Security. That suggests he understands the old political axiom that Social Security is the third rail in American politics. Touch it and get torched.
But we see something different in his administration’s actions. The marauding DOGE brigade has taken an ax to the bedrock program with staff cuts, leadership changes and office closures, and it has recently announced a new policy that would reduce the opportunities for people to conduct Social Security business over the phone. Even Republicans who have supported Trump have expressed concern about the downsizing efforts and the caustic rhetoric that could undermine public trust in the nation’s largest federal program and hurt their senior and disabled constituents who rely on Social Security.
Social Security is the third rail in American politics. Touch it and get torched.
There’s a long list of reasons we can’t fully trust this administration’s stewardship over the Social Security Administration, but let’s start with the following six signs.
The top reason is obvious. The administration needs to make big cuts to fulfill Elon Musk’s promise to trim 20% from the federal budget of $6.8 trillion and extend tax cuts for wealthy people. It’s impossible to make good on that promise without raiding programs that have heretofore been politically untouchable. Musk’s chainsaw approach — including shuttering offices and slashing federal staffing — is not gonna get to that 20% mark. The Social Security Administration paid $120 billion in benefits to more than 67 million people in 2024, providing benefits to elderly people, disabled people and dependents.
Reason No. 2: Musk and other DOGE leaders don’t understand how Social Security works. SSA employees have reported that the new DOGE-approved leadership team has shown little interest in learning about the inner workings of the massive and massively complicated agency, and Musk has wrongly disparaged it as a “Ponzi scheme.”
That rhetoric leads to the third reason on this list. This administration seems to care little about the American public or the government’s public servants. You see that in the way it has gutted federal departments and fired hundreds of people with little empathy for their plight. You see that in the closure of field offices and the scaling back of help lines with seemingly no regard for how elderly or disabled recipients or beneficiaries will get help. And you certainly saw it in the cavalier comments from billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who said his mother-in-law wouldn’t complain if the Social Security Administration failed to send her check.
“She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month,” Lutnick said on the “All-In Podcast.” Pushing the false narrative that fraud is rampant among those receiving Social Security payments, Lutnick went on to say that “the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen.”
Whoever screams, he said, are the people who’re stealing. I think it’s safe to say that very few people, regardless of their political affiliations, would be quiet if their Social Security payments didn’t arrive.
Clocking in at No. 4: Its laser focus on eradicating DEI notwithstanding, the Trump administration either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about our country’s changing demographics. While Trump has appointed more women to his Cabinet than any other Republican president, his Cabinet doesn’t mirror the demographics of the country in terms of race, veteran’s status or ethnicity — but especially not in terms of income and wealth.
Biden’s Cabinet was collectively worth $118 million; in January, the members of Trump’s Cabinet were collectively worth more than $460 billion.
Public Citizen reports that President Joe Biden’s Cabinet was collectively worth $118 million; in January, the members of Trump’s Cabinet were collectively worth more than $460 billion. The average salary in the U.S. is $66,621 according to the SSA’s national wage index.
The DOGE team’s buzz saw approach to Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare is where the administration’s disinterest in demographics is particularly glaring. By the end of this year, almost 12,000 people in the U.S. will be turning 65 daily as all those Baby Boomers stampede into retirement. Social Security staffing was already at a 50-year low, and the administration plans to further cut 7,000 workers, or almost 12% of the staff.
A fifth reason Social Security is likely to continue to go through the DOGE wringer is its vast trove of sensitive information. Data holds value — especially in the world of technology, where software and apps are constantly scooping up personal information. The Social Security Administration touches almost every working American in some way, and SSA employees have traditionally taken strict steps to protect all that data. Access is limited even within the administration’s various departments, and SSA employees annually take an oath to protect that information. Even inadvertently disclosing data could result in a five-year prison sentence and a $5,000 fine for every violation, Laura Haltzel, former associate commissioner at the SSA, said on the podcast “You Earned This.”
There’s no evidence that DOGE marauders who swept into the Social Security Administration allegedly looking for waste, abuse and fraud signed a similar oath or that they consider Americans’ data sacred.
“The magnitude of the data that is being shared through DOGE is so much bigger than probably most people even realize,” Haltzel said.
Finally, the Trump administration conflates need with weakness and associates wealth with strength. Musk seems to view the program as excessive largesse and not money people have earned. Yes, earned with FICA payroll tax deductions that have been taken out of their paychecks every week with the full expectation that they would get some assistance in their elderly years. (FICA stands for Federal Insurance Contribution Act — and those deductions earn future credits for Social Security benefits.)
Social Security is a social contract that has worked in this country for 90 years, and while the billionaire class has no need to pay attention to the FICA deduction in paychecks, voters in both red and blue America will indeed notice if their Social Security payments don’t appear. They will complain. It will be loud. And it will be justified.
About one-quarter of the aged live in households that receive at least 90% of family income from Social Security.
To say it is a lifeline is not an understatement. According to a 2017 report from the Social Security Administration, “roughly half of the aged population live in households that receive at least 50 percent of total family income from Social Security and about one-quarter of the aged live in households that receive at least 90 percent of family income from Social Security.”
If Trump breaks his promise to protect Social Security, that’s devastatingly bad news for America. Social Security is an anti-poverty program, and ending it or even severely curtailing it would have catastrophic effects.
Social Security is called a third rail for a reason. And if Trump and his billionaire aids touch it they’ll give Democrats the issue they need to wage a righteous fight on behalf of all Americans.