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Trump Celebrates Social Security While Stacking His Administration With Critics

The president has vowed not to cut the program despite surrounding himself with opponents of the benefits program.

President Donald Trump celebrated the anniversary of Social Security on Thursday even as members of his administration have sought to undercut the program.

The president signed a proclamation in the Oval Office marking 90 years since the benefits program launched under former President Franklin Roosevelt.

“Today we celebrate the 90th anniversary of one of the most significant pieces of legislation ever signed into law, the Social Security Act of 1935,” Trump said. “We’re going to make it stronger, bigger, and better.”

He further claimed he was making the program stronger by kicking undocumented immigrants out of the system—despite the fact that undocumented immigrants do not qualify for benefits—and repeated debunked claims about people listed as 160 years old collecting benefits.

“We love it, and we love what’s happening with it,” Trump declared of the program. “It’s going to be good for 90 years and beyond.”

The president made no mention of how he would address the looming issue of insolvency.

The Trump administration and its Republican allies have been sharply critical of the program that provides benefits to more than 70 million people.

Just this week, the president named E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after he fired the former BLS leader over its July jobs report, which showed slower-than-expected growth. Antoni, an economist with the conservative Heritage Foundation, has characterized the retirement and disability benefits program as a “Ponzi scheme.”

“Eventually you need to sunset the program,” he said in a December interview.

Then there is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had to scramble after calling the new children’s savings program in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act a “back door for privatizing Social Security” in an interview with Breitbart News last month.

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That same day, Bessent took to X to clear up his remarks, writing that the new accounts are an “additive benefit for future generations, which will supplement the sanctity of Social Security’s guaranteed payments” and insisting the administration is “committed to protecting Social Security.”

While not part of the official White House team, Trump also invited Heritage economist Stephen Moore to the White House last week to highlight some economic analysis with a series of massive poster boards as he faced fallout over firing the BLS commissioner.

Moore has long been a Social Security critic. In an interview last year, he advocated against Americans putting money into Social Security, calling it a “black hole,” and said they should instead volunteer to put their money in a 401K plan.

The vast majority of Americans oppose cutting or privatizing Social Security.

Former President George W Bush’s push for privatization through voluntary personal accounts in 2005 failed, and candidates have found suggesting reforms to the program can be a liability. That’s what led Trump to vow he would not touch it during the campaign. Many Republicans have also shifted their tune on the program.

Speaker Mike Johnson has ruled out cuts to Social Security. However, he previously chaired the Republican Study Committee, which under his leadership proposed raising the retirement age and changing how the cost-of-living adjustment is calculated.

Sen. Rick Scott faced backlash in 2022 for proposing a plan that would let all federal programs end in five years unless renewed by Congress. Democrats accused him of wanting to kill Social Security and Medicare. The Florida senator ended up revising his proposal in February 2023 to exclude the programs.

The trust funds for Social Security are on track to be depleted by 2034, a year earlier than projected last year. Without changes, the program would have to cut monthly benefits by nearly 20 percent, according to the latest annual report by the board of trustees in June.

The Social Security Fairness Act signed by President Joe Biden last year, which increased benefits, has contributed to its insolvency. The Republican budget bill signed by Trump last month will further accelerate insolvency to 2032, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

While the law increased the deduction for seniors, which Trump has inaccurately touted as ending taxes on Social Security, the analysis found the reduction of taxed benefits would further deplete the trust fund that pays out Social Security.

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The Trump administration has not offered any proposals to address Social Security’s looming financial challenges.

While many Republican lawmakers have backed off criticism of the program with Trump in office, Utah Sen. Mike Lee in December posted a long thread on X blasting the program. He said it was “almost fair to compare it to a Ponzi scheme” and accused Congress of having “little desire to fix it.”

“We were sold a dream, but received a nightmare. It’s time for a wake-up call. We need real reform,” he argued.

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Sarah Ewall-WicePolitical Reporter

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