As President Trump marks his first 100 days in office on Tuesday, the administration is touting all of their fulfilled campaign promises when it comes to Social Security, an issue where he has been much maligned by Democrats and some in the media.
‘I am proud of the extraordinary work by our dedicated employees at SSA to help deliver on President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security,’ Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), told Fox News Digital in a statement.
‘They have worked tirelessly to improve customer service while safeguarding Americans’ hard-earned benefits from waste, fraud, and abuse. It will take time to fully recover from the disastrous policies of the previous administration, which led to sky-high wait times for customer service and unconscionable delays for benefit decisions,’ Dudek continued. ‘But SSA employees are leading the turnaround by refocusing their work on frontline customer service, modernizing IT for a better customer experience, and bolstering program integrity.’
The administration, which has called Trump’s first 100 days the most successful of any administration, says that it has made ‘significant strides’ in moving the Social Security Fairness Act forward and has paid over $14.8 billion in retroactive payments to over 2 million individuals affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset.
Trump’s moves on Social Security come as Democrats, including former President Joe Biden, have accused the administration of plotting to slash Social Security benefits, particularly through the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) efforts to reform the agency.
However, the administration says that it is focused on reforms, not cutting benefits, and a White House official told Fox News Digital that SSA has identified over $1 billion in cost avoidance or efficiencies for fiscal year 2025 ‘through new, common-sense approaches in areas such as payroll, information technology, contracts and grants, real property, printing, travel, and purchase card policies.’
Examples include reducing software licensing, salvaging and repairing tables and chairs, returning leased motor vehicles, converting in-person training to online, streamlining case assignment and tracking systems, and reducing travel card spending allowances.
Additionally, the White House official says the agency has made strides in implementing fraud prevention tools, including tools that help identify fraudulent claims via telephone.
Many, including DOGE chief Elon Musk, have raised concerns about the accuracy of Social Security records, particularly when it comes to data related to whether a person is deceased or still on the rolls despite being well over 100 years old.
The White House told Fox News Digital that progress has been made on that front as well to improve the accuracy of death data and called that effort a ‘high priority’ that was a low priority in the previous administration.
Musk has drawn the ire of Democrats by referring to Social Security as a ‘Ponzi scheme.’
Fox News Digital spoke to an expert earlier this year who made the case that Musk has a point in using the term ‘Ponzi scheme.’
‘Musk’s statement about Social Security being the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme does have validity,’ James Agresti, president of the nonprofit research institute Just Facts, told Fox News Digital in response to pushback from Musk’s claim, which included a ‘false’ rating from Politifact.
‘A Ponzi scheme operates by taking money from new investors to pay current investors. That’s the definition given by the SEC, and contrary to popular belief, that’s exactly how Social Security operates.’