Destroying Social Security from within

The trust with the American people is under a blitzkrieg of outright propaganda from Musk, Trump and DOGE.

By Jeff Nesbit

Elon Musk’s endgame on Social Security is now coming into focus. He intends to destroy it.

President Trump has said more than once that he has no intention of touching Social Security benefits for more than 70 million Americans.

But actions speak infinitely louder than words – and the actions directed by Musk and carried out by his Department of Government Efficiency wrecking crew at the Social Security Administration are clear; they intend to destroy the agency’s morale, create the illusion of widespread fraud in the Social Security payment system, and then move to end the most successful social safety net program in U.S. history.

“Morale is in the toilet,” an SSA employee told the Washington Post. “We all know what DOGE wants to do, which is just break us, so they can privatize us.”

The deep, massive cuts to SSA’s employee ranks – already at a 40-year low because of constant GOP attacks on the agency through the congressional appropriations process – are starting to have a soul-crushing impact on the field offices that are the backbone of the agency’s service to Social Security recipients. People are already starting to wait hours to speak to SSA workers.

“Not being able to talk to a real person [at Social Security] when you need help or your local office closing due to staffing cuts is a benefit cut—point blank,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

For those not familiar with SSA, it is a service agency. Human beings deal directly with tens of millions of Americans at central moments of their lives – the death of a spouse, disability at work, loss of income to poverty levels, or simply the decision whether to start receiving monthly Social Security benefits after the age of 65.

The agency fields 3 million calls or visits every single week, rain or shine. Every visit or call is handled by a human being. SSA employees are dedicated to serving the public directly, at every moment in their lives when they are in need of SSA service and support. It is the backbone of a social safety net for tens of millions of Americans.

When the agency sends letters to 72 million Social Security recipients, the news is trusted. Because, until now, SSA has never missed a payment, has kept meticulous salary records for every American over their lifetimes, and has responded to each and every request for information. Career staff spend their lives in service of that mission.

Elon Musk and his DOGE team have clearly set out to destroy that mission – and the will of the career SSA employees who have served the American people since Social Security was first established in the wake of the Great Depression.

“The truth is, Social Security for 90 years has never missed a monthly payment, but given the wrecking ball and the people they are driving out of this agency, we are going to see several things happening in the very near term future,” said former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley, who predicts that the Musk/DOGE cuts could collapse SSA’s system within months.

Whether Trump’s White House has signed on to that cut-and-destroy mission is an open question. But one thing is clear: The system of trust between Social Security and the American people is under a blitzkrieg of outright propaganda from Musk, Trump and DOGE right now.

When Trump spent five minutes of his State of the Union speech falsely claiming that millions of Americans over the age of 100 were receiving benefits, it was propaganda with a purpose. It’s meant to create the illusion of widespread fraud where very little fraud exists.

“Trump is coming for Social Security. And he has a new 'Big Lie' to justify it,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said. “Trump's lies about the 2020 election had a purpose: to destroy faith in the electoral system and overthrow American democracy. Now he’s revamping the same lies and false claims of ‘fraud’ to destroy Social Security.”

Trump is pushing “a debunked lie about Social Security,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio). “SSA is not paying millions of people over 100 — payment accuracy is 99.8% — fraud is rare. Justifying DOGE dismantling of SSA with lies and attacks on hard earned benefits are callous and cruel.”

But that callousness and cruelty toward the Social Security agency and its employees is precisely the point. That’s the end goal – to break the American people’s trust in Social Security when it becomes impossible for the agency to serve people day in and day out.

That Republican Party blueprint – to destroy the agency first, which then creates an opening to dismantle or fundamentally alter the Social Security program itself – has been underway for years. But it is now out in the open, thanks to the efforts by Musk and his DOGE team.

The aims of Trump, Musk and the Republican Party around Social Security are now coming clearly into focus. The only question remaining is whether the Democratic Party and the judicial system has enough running room and fortitude to slow down and eventually stop the tsunami of propaganda, terror and destruction raining down on the Social Security Administration – and the American people.

Jeff Nesbit was the deputy commissioner of communications at the Social Security Administration during the Biden administration.

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