The Dystopian Future is Now at Trump’s Social Security Administration
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A combination of incompetence and extremism is once again on display at Trump’s Social Security Administration (SSA). On Friday, two disturbing stories broke. Wired reported that the Trump administration is demanding that SSA employees inform ICE about appointments made for in-person service at Social Security field offices, presumably so that agents can nab suspected undocumented immigrants. Meanwhile, according to Government Exec, SSA staffers were told to advise callers to the agency’s 1-800 number that “suicide is an option” for people considering ending their lives.
These two stories may seem unrelated; but they are not. Both can be understood in in the context of Trump’s grossly misusing SSA to advance his extreme ideological agenda — against immigrants and against a federal workforce that truly serves the public.
“Suicide is an option”
The administration has slashed some 7,000 jobs at the Social Security Administration, creating a tremendous ‘brain drain’ and weakening an agency that serves a growing senior population.
Government Exec reports that, because of understaffing, SSA recently began “shifting new swaths of its workforce to phone answering duty,” providing those employees with only a brief, three-hour training.
In that training, employees were told to advise distressed callers expressing suicidal ideations that “suicide is only one option.” Employees in the room reportedly were “taken aback” and expressed “disbelief that it was just said.” Mental health experts roundly criticized the SSA training:
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention maintains a best practices framework for suicide crisis lines, which emphasizes that suicide should not be presented as “acceptable.” – Government Exec, 2/13/26
When asked for his response to this news, former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley told us, “For 90 years, the mission of Social Security field offices has been to promote, protect and defend the dignity of every human life. There must be some mistake. I cannot believe that anyone would try to teach the compassionate human beings of (SSA) to tell beneficiaries that taking their own lives is an option.”
This is only one of the latest in a series of outrages at Trump’s SSA, demonstrating that the purposely understaffed agency is awash in incompetence, poor judgement, and immoral leadership from the very top.
Reporting SSA field office appointments to ICE
The other recent outrage is the disclosure in Wired that workers at the Social Security Administration have been told to share information about in-person appointments with agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Wired quotes an unnamed SSA employee who fears retaliation for speaking out:
“If ICE comes in and asks if someone has an upcoming appointment, we will let them know the date and time,” an employee with direct knowledge of the directive says. – Wired, 2/13/26
This directive is well outside the mission of SSA, which is to administer Americans’ earned benefits – not to snitch on visitors to field offices who in some cases are non-citizens in the U.S. legally. (Some non-citizens can be eligible for Social Security benefits, while undocumented workers are not.)
“From the first moment that DOGE marched into Social Security, greenlighted by the (Trump) regime… we’ve seen them misuse Social Security in ways that can inflict pain and… suffering on others,” former commissioner O’Malley says. “We now see that they’re trying to turn the agency into a dragnet for the greatest internment of human beings on US soil in the modern history of America.”
Former acting Social Security commissioner under Trump, Leland Dudek, says that SSA is meant to be a “safe space” for Social Security applicants and beneficiaries. It’s important, he told Wired, for customers of SSA to feel that “SSA is there for them and no harm will come to them.” If this policy is kept in place, he says, “Why would the public trust SSA anymore?”
Fmr. Social Security Commissioner O’Malley says Trump is trying to turn SSA into “a dragnet for the greatest internment of human beings on US soil in the modern history of America.”
Reps. John Larson (D-CT) and Richard Neal (D-MA) of the House Ways and Means Committee responded with alarm to Friday’s reporting:::
“Under this administration, ICE has been transformed into Donald Trump’s secret police force – accountable to nobody. (Now) ICE is attempting to infiltrate the Social Security Administration… using field offices to further round up and detain people, and scaring people out of getting the benefits they need.”
NCPSSM’s senior Social Security policy expert, Maria Freese, points out that SSA is not the only agency the Trump regime has misused in pursuit of its anti-immigrant agenda. As Wired reports, a federal district judge in Massachusetts ruled that the IRS and SSA could not share taxpayer data with DHS or ICE – though this administration is not well known for complying with court orders.
‘The Dystopian Future is Now’
These latest revelations come on the heels of news that members of DOGE offered a conservative political advocate access to Americans’ personal Social Security data to “overturn election results.”
At an event on Capitol Hill last week, Reps. Larson, Neal, and other Democratic lawmakers demanded an investigation into DOGE misuse of Social Security data. Rep. Larson said that “this data belonging to you and your children, relating to this program that you put your trust in,” must be protected. “There will be justice!” he promised.
An angry Rep. John Larson (D-CT) demands an investigation into DOGE misuse of Social Security data
The administration seems to be doing everything in its power to foster public distrust in the SSA. Trump’s dystopian policies are contrary to the mission of the agency, which exists solely to deliver Americans’ earned benefits. Its operations are paid for by workers’ Social Security payroll contributions. SSA truly belongs to the American people. President Biden once called Social Security “a sacred trust.” But clearly nothing is sacred to the Trump administration. The dystopian future is now.
TrumpRx is Prescription Drug Snake Oil
Donald Trump’s latest gesture toward lowering prescription drug prices — and it is mostly an empty gesture — is the ‘branded’ website, TrumpRx, which the prez unveiled last week with great fanfare. It purports to save Americans money on drugs. But it is largely another Trump gimmick, joining Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Sneakers, and a myriad of other schemes.
Trump Rx simply re-directs users to underwhelming (and already existing) manufacturer’s ‘discounts’ on brand‑name drugs – and is nowhere close to a serious plan to lower Americans’ drug costs. In fact, Medicare beneficiaries cannot even use these manufacturer’s discounts, and few people with private health insurance policies will benefit, either.
Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) basically gave the site zero stars:
“This is just another Donald Trump pet project to rebrand something that already exists, take credit for it, and do nothing to actually lower healthcare prices.” – Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA)
The playbook used to unveil Trump’s latest gimmick is the same one he has used for decades. Whether it’s his (now defunct) casinos, wine, or university, the order of operations is simple: Slap the Trump name on it (preferably in gold!), declare it the best thing ever, and abandon the venture for something else before the shine wears off.
In a press conference, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), excoriated the launch of TrumpRx:
“TrumpRx is nothing more than a glorified coupon book, and it will advance the Republican agenda to undermine affordable health care for American families.” – Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee
Senator Wyden (who was a guest on our podcast last year) nailed it. TrumpRx covers just a few dozen high-priced brand-name drugs like weight-loss meds and fertility treatments, steering uninsured patients to direct-to-consumer portals that were already out there on GoodRx or specific drug company websites.
Sen. Alex Padilla calls TrumpRx a “pet project to rebrand something that already exists and do nothing to lower prices.”
For Medicare Part D (drug coverage) enrollees — who fill most prescriptions with less expensive but equally effective generic meds — Trump Rx is basically useless. The TrumpRx discounts also don’t work with most other insurances, won’t count toward deductibles or out-of-pocket caps, and leave the real problem untouched: list prices that Big Pharma keeps jacking up. (Drugmakers welcomed the New Year by raising the prices of some 350 medications.)
While Trump Rx is a joke, President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act – while not a cure all – enables the Medicare program to negotiate drug prices directly with Big Pharma. These negotiations have so far lowered the prices of ten high-cost prescription drugs by up to 79%, which go into effect the year following each round of negotiations. As a bonus, lower drug prices in Medicare can have a positive ripple effect on costs for everyone.
The Trump administration deserves credit for following the law and initiating the next round of negotiations with drugmakers, having announced the next 15 drugs to be put on the table for price reductions. These are real, rather than imagined, savings.
Medicare negotiations with Big Pharma under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act have already yielded significant savings
Meanwhile, critics say that Trump’s own drug pricing gimmicks benefit Big Pharma (and perhaps his own family) more than consumers. TrumpRx, for example, exists to funnel patients to direct-to-consumer (DTC) sites and the websites of drug manufacturers. Notably, Donald Trump, Jr. sits on the board of a DTC website called BlinkRx, which offers brand-name drugs.
“BlinkRx stands to benefit from a shake-up of how patients buy drugs after President Trump urged pharmaceutical companies to sell their medicines directly to consumers. BlinkRx helps drugmakers do exactly that with a service that promises to set up direct-to-patient sales programs.” – Wall Street Journal, October 2025
Trump knows that he has failed to deliver on his “great healthcare plan.” Instead of taking bold action to truly reduce drug costs (rather than peddling so-called ‘discounts’ on exorbitant Big Pharma prices), he’s resorted to old tricks. Americans – and especially seniors on fixed incomes — deserve real relief at the pharmacy counter instead of a giant bottle of snake oil.
Cato Really Wants to Cut Your Social Security Benefits
Conservative think tanks are working full-time to destroy Social Security as we know it. This week, Cato Institute’s Romina Boccia is peddling the fiction that Social Security doesn’t work and must be “re-designed.” In a recent post on Cato’s blog, she rolls out the “greatest hits” from a time-worn catalogue of conservative talking points to justify altering the program beyond recognition. While it might benefit the financial elites who fund Cato to shrink Social Security, it would hurt working Americans. We asked our senior Social Security expert, Maria Freese, to fact-check some of Boccia’s key claims. Let’s start with the headline:::
BOCCIA: “Social Security Isn’t a Retirement Account — and Congress Must Stop Pretending It Is.”
FREESE: Boccia is correct. Social Security is not a personal retirement account like a 401k. Perhaps some in Congress are “pretending” that it’s an individual retirement account, but anyone who knows Social Security understands that it is social insurance. Workers’ and employers’ payroll contributions are pooled, with benefits payable upon retirement, disability, or death of a family breadwinner. Those insurance benefits are calculated to replace a portion of workers’ incomes based on their earnings history.
If anything, conservatives ignore the program’s disability and survivors’ benefits, framing Social Security as purely a retirement program. In fact, some 3.5 million children collect Social Security benefits because a parent has died or become disabled.
It’s also important to remember that Social Security was never intended to be the only source of income in retirement. Rather, it was expected to be combined with employer-provided pensions and personal savings as part of the old “three-legged stool.” But most non-governmental employers have eliminated pensions — kicking out one leg of the stool. Growing wealth inequality and rising costs have prevented many Americans from saving for retirement on their own. (Only 50% of workers participate in 401K plans!) There goes another leg of the stool — making Social Security all the more crucial.
BOCCIA: “Politicians routinely describe Social Security payroll taxes as ‘contributions,’ speak of a ‘trust fund’ as if it held real savings, and define benefits as ‘earned.’”
FREESE: Yes, they do, and they are correct. The Social Security Trust Fund is invested in treasury bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. These assets are as “real” as any portfolio of Treasury bonds. College endowments and overseas investors would be shocked to learn that their US-backed assets are somehow fake! (In fact, you can watch our CEO and President, Max Richtman, debunk Boccia’s ‘trust funds aren’t real’ argument in a 2025 debate.) Right now, there are more than $2 trillion in assets in the Social Security trust fund.
Benefits are very much earned. Social Security benefits are tied to workers’ payroll contributions. The benefit formula links monthly Social Security checks to lifetime earnings. Social Security benefits are progressive in nature — meaning lower-income workers receive proportionally higher benefits. Americans understand that Social Security is a social contract: People pay in during their working years, and receive benefits upon retirement, disability, or the death of a family breadwinner. Social Security is fundamentally different from a means-tested welfare benefit.
BOCCIA: “When Social Security is framed as a retirement account, any benefit reduction sounds like unfair confiscation.”
FREESE: Workers rightly see benefit cuts as unfair, not because they mistake Social Security for a 401(k), but because they have kept their end of the bargain with every paycheck. Contributions are deducted automatically (and matched by employers), with the explicit promise that Social Security benefits will be paid in full.
Boccia’s own polling shows that Americans are wary of large benefit cuts once the real dollar amounts are spelled out. Younger workers, who Boccia casts as unfairly burdened by Social Security, are facing a future with fewer pensions, more unstable jobs, and displacement; for them, a robust, predictable Social Security benefit will be even more important, not less.
BOCCIA: “Lifting the payroll tax cap becomes a decision to raise taxes on higher earners to fund redistribution.”
FREESE: When Social Security was created, payroll taxes applied to roughly 92% of all wage income; after the 1983 reforms, about 90% of wage earnings were subject to the tax. Today, due to the widening wealth gap (the rich getting richer), only about 83% of the nation’s total wage income is subject to Social Security taxes. An adjustment of the payroll wage cap (now set at $184,500 in annual wages) would ensure that high earners contribute their fair share, just like everyone else. In the meantime, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos stop paying into Social Security shortly after January 1 while the rest of us contribute all year.
It’s also important to remember that the highest-income individuals have found ways to reclassify their income so it doesn’t appear as wages — a luxury most workers do not have. Private equity managers, for example, convert compensation into “carried interest,” to avoid paying their fair share.
This is why the polling consistently indicates that large majorities of Americans across party lines prefer that high earners contribute more, rather than cutting benefits or raising the retirement age for those who rely on Social Security.
BOCCIA: “Congress should stop pretending Social Security is a contribution-based retirement account and design it accordingly. The most straightforward approach is a flat benefit: a uniform, anti-poverty payment for eligible seniors.”
FREESE: Sorry, but a “flat benefit” would hurt middle class workers. According to a 2022 analysis, while the lowest quintile (20%) of working families would see a lifetime benefit increase from a flat benefit, the middle quintile would see benefit cuts. Lower income workers already benefit from the progressive structure of Social Security (and can also receive Supplemental Security Income or SSI), but middle class beneficiaries would have a hard time withstanding the cut from a flat benefit. A flat benefit would subvert the fundamental nature of Social Security, where benefits are based on workers’ lifetime earnings — and turn it into a welfare program that could be demonized and cut over time.
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Read our review of Romina Boccia’s book “Re-Imagining Social Security.”
Listen to our podcast episode about recent public polling showing overwhelming support for Social Security.
Listen to our podcast episode about the spike in anti-Social Security propaganda from the political right.
Watch our documentary about the 90-year history of Social Security!
“Fox Guarding the Henhouse”: Social Security Whistleblower Fears Trump/DOGE Have Put Americans’ Data at Risk
Social Security Administration whistleblower Chuck Borges on PBS NewsHour
An attorney for whistleblower Chuck Borges says that DOGE accessing Americans’ sensitive Social Security information is like “the fox guarding the henhouse” — as her client appeared on PBS NewsHour responding to the latest news about data mishandling at the Social Security Administration (SSA). The attorney goes on to say that the “government is lying to us” about DOGE’s malfeasance.
Borges, who was the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer until being forced to resign, told NewsHour that a court filing from the Trump administration confirms some of his worst fears about DOGE’s abuse of beneficiaries’ personal data. The interview comes on the heels of reporting last week that DOGE employees shared sensitive Social Security data with a third party to ‘overturn election results.’
Borges filed a formal complaint about DOGE activities last summer, before being pushed out of SSA. His reporting flagged three specific concerns, which have now been partially validated by the recent court disclosure from the Trump administration’s very own Department of Justice (DOJ):
*DOGE employees were granted inappropriate access to SSA data.
*DOGE employees violated a temporary restraining order after sharing this data through “Voter Data Agreement” with an unnamed conservative advocacy group.
*DOGE employees uploaded sensitive Social Security data to an internet cloud server without adequate security controls.
Borges told PBS, “This court filing validates the first two pieces of that puzzle. The third piece has not yet been validated or refuted yet with any documentation. But if the first two allegations are correct, I’m very concerned about the third.”
This third issue involves a database called “The Numident,” the master log of all personal information connected to Social Security numbers dating back to 1936.
“To put that personally identifiable information (in the cloud) that can be used to propagate identity theft, mortgage fraud, steal small business loans, impersonate dead people… It’s a risk to literally every American’s ability to have a daily life” – Chuck Borges, Former Chief Data Officer, SSA
The Trump administration’s court filing downplays the breach as affecting only 1,000 people, but Borges questions that figure. “Americans can’t be sure (their data is safe) until the agency releases documentation that proves or refutes my allegations one way or the other. To date, they have released zero.”
“Because the government’s not telling us the truth. I still don’t think we know the full story. The allegations that Mr. Borges raised are quite serious. And he raised them with the federal agency that is responsible, Office of Special Counsel, for investigating his disclosures. And rather than investigating it, they have kicked it to a different agency. They haven’t investigated at all.” – Debra Katz, attorney for whistleblower Charles Borges
These brazen violations of privacy have become par for the course in Trump 2.0. As Politico recently reported, ChatGPT-style AI experiments have already exposed sensitive data at other agencies, akin to what DOGE is accused of doing at SSA.
“The government is lying to us,” Says Borges’ attorney, Debra Katz
From brutal workforce cuts to unnecessary hurdles for beneficiaries, Trump and Musk’s DOGE team unleashed trauma and chaos at the Social Security Administration shortly after the president took office. Even as Musk left the federal government and his relationship with Trump has waivered, the damage done to Social Security is coming into sharper focus.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare has joined Democratic members of Congress in calling for a probe into DOGE malfeasance:
“We stand with Congressmen John Larson (D-CT) and Richard Neal (D-MA) in demanding ‘a full criminal investigation into DOGE leaks of private Social Security data to Elon Musk’s associates and immediate congressional action to safeguard Americans’ privacy,’” said Max Richtman, President & CEO, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
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Listen to our podcast interview with SSA whistleblower Laura Haltzel.
Find the full interview of Chuck Borges on the PBS NewsHour here.
Medicare Advantage Keeps Gaming The System, New Data Reveals
Artwork by medicareresources.org
Over the years, we’ve have talked a lot about the disadvantages of Medicare Advantage (MA). These plans — which have become a gold mine for profit-oriented insurers and their Wall Street backers — cover over half of Medicare beneficiaries, and are sold as a cheaper alternative to traditional Medicare. New reporting confirms that these private plans are bleeding taxpayers for billions of dollars more than traditional Medicare would cost for comparable enrollees.
Fresh reporting by MedPage — drawing from data provided by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) — highlights MA’s broken promises.
Despite reforms like the V28 risk adjustment model, MA payments still will exceed traditional Medicare by 14% per enrollee this year. Of the projected $76 billion overage, $22 billion stems directly from “upcoding” – where insurers exaggerate patients’ diagnoses in order to reap higher payments from the government.
Medicare Advantage insurers have been cited for exaggerating patients’ diagnoses & denying care
Our policy team sounded the alarm on these abuses in a March 2024 comment letter, in which NCPSSM President Max Richtman called out insurers’ nefarious practices. The letter demanded better oversight by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (now led by Trump-appointee Dr. Mehmet Oz). Richtman urged the agency to take action to protect Medicare’s integrity, such as tougher coding standards and a ban on ‘abusive health risk assessments.’
“Systematic upcoding reduces the accuracy of MA payments by making the enrollee population appear sicker and costlier.” – Max Richtman, President and CEO, NCPSSM
The upcoding has become so egregious that even some Republicans have started to scrutinize major insurers. Last year, staffers for Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (who appears in our new Social Security documentary) were granted access to over 50,000 pages of United Health Care (UHC) documents. Their findings — which were released earlier this month — exposed UHC’s commitment to what Senator Grassley called “gaming the system and abusing the risk adjustment process to turn a steep profit.”
While United Health Care has emerged as the worst offender, it’s abundantly clear that many MA insurers are engaged in these shady practices. Look no further than insurers’ reliance on prior authorizations for procedures and treatments that normally would be automatically covered in traditional Medicare. This includes denying skilled nursing care that jeopardizes older patients who have nowhere else to turn.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) accused Medicare Advantage insurers of “gaming the system.”
Patients can appeal non-coverage rulings from the prior authorization process. Appeals are triggered when patients receive Notices of Medicare Non-Coverage (NOMNC), effectively denying them care. It was reported that one patient received 12 non-coverage notices — even after winning previous appeals.
Last week, Acentra Health exposed how the prior authorization process specifically targets seniors receiving skilled nursing care. After combing through 25,000 appeals, Acentra found that 83% of coverage denials involved skilled nursing care patients. Of those, a staggering 93% related to Medicare Advantage patients, despite that group representing roughly half of the Medicare market. While it’s long overdue that the federal government crack down on these abuses by MA insurers, it’s also important to remember that seniors can avoid denials of care (and other MA-related headaches) by enrolling in traditional Medicare instead.
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Read our comment letter from 2024 here
Read more about the disadvantages of Medicare Advantage here
Listen to our podcast here.