President Donald Trump proudly declared he had ended taxes on Social Security while speaking Thursday from the Oval Office, only to be contradicted by his own aide moments later.
“Last month, I signed ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ and allowed no tax on Social Security for our great seniors,” Trump claimed. “No tax on Social Security for our seniors.”
The president, 79, made the comment while marking the 90th anniversary of Social Security.
He has repeatedly claimed that he ended taxes on the benefits program for seniors, but that is not what his law, signed in July, actually did.
After he made the claim on Thursday, however, his own staffer contradicted him on camera.
Trump’s Staff Secretary Will Scharf was explaining for the president what was in the proclamation he was about to sign, where he made the admission that the president had not in fact ended taxation on social security.
“It also obviously mentions the fact that as part of the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ a vast majority of our senior citizens are no longer paying taxes on their social security benefits as you promised in your campaign,” Scharf said.
As he said it, Trump’s top aide seemed to stumble over how to phrase it, settling on “vast majority,” contradicting the president while avoiding explaining outright that what the law actually contains is a tax deduction.
That did not stop the White House from writing on X Thursday that the president was strengthening the program with “No tax on Social Security for seniors.”
The president also doubled down on Truth Social, posting: “Last month, I signed the One Big Beautiful Bill, and allowed No Tax on Social Security for our great seniors.”
While Trump and the White House has repeatedly boasted about ending taxation on the retirement benefits, the massive bill passed by Republicans only temporarily increases a tax deduction for seniors.
It’s a $6,000 deduction for those over 65, which phases out for those with higher incomes. It is also set to expire at the end of Trump’s second term.
The Tax Policy Center found only about half of Social Security recipients would benefit from the deduction, noting many were already not paying federal income tax because they were making too small an income while others didn’t receive it because their incomes were too high to be eligible.
Last month, Trump’s Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano came under fire for spreading false information in an email sent to Social Security recipients that the new GOP law would “eliminate federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries.”
Democrats warned that their offices were being flooded with questions from confused taxpayers about the new provision and demanded the SSA issue a correction clarifying about the deduction.
Bisignano joined Trump during his Oval Office remarks on Thursday where he lavished Trump with praise as the president grinned. He notably did not get into detail about what the tax law actually does.
As for strengthening social security, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget warned in June that the president’s tax law would accelerate Social Security insolvency by a year to 2032.
