Trump and Musk’s New Corruption Scandal: DOGE is a Scheme to Gut Social Security
Written by Andrew Bates
Social Security is wildly popular, which is why Trump repeatedly promised voters he’d “protect” it. But now that Trump’s in power, he’s allowing Musk—who calls the program a “Ponzi scheme”—to cripple Social Security and move its benefits out of reach for an untold number of seniors and disabled Americans.
On Tuesday, I wrote about how Trump and Musk’s severe cuts to Social Security, and their illegal accessing of Americans’ sensitive Social Security data, are major liabilities for Republicans.
Like the Washington Post has covered, Social Security is “breaking down.” Because the richest man in the world is causing “long waits, waves of calls,” and “website crashes” as he races to slash the critical retirement security program—just so Republicans can instead use those funds on tax handouts for the wealthy.
I made the point that Trump’s attacks on judges are an opportunity to highlight the danger he and Musk pose to Social Security, since a court order is the only reason why DOGE had to stop illegally poring over our private Social Security records—including medical and income data.
Polling shows Americans are extremely concerned about DOGE gaining the most private information about them that the government has. I’m one of those Americans.
But Wednesday morning, it turned out that Musk’s violations of Social Security and Americans’ privacy are much bigger than we knew.
First, Judd Legum with Popular Information broke the news that the administration is trying to bypass the judge’s order by naming “a DOGE operative as the new Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Social Security Administration (SSA).” Legum explained that this very significant new appointment “was not announced publicly” and that it means “someone who, until Tuesday, was identified as a member of the DOGE Team can continue to access sensitive personal information at SSA.”
At the same time, exclusive investigative reporting from Reuters revealed that “The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data.”
Think about that: while Musk’s team is making draconian cuts to Social Security, they are also furtively taking over the top information position within Social Security in order to maintain their hold on the most confidential personal data that exists on the American people—even though a federal judge said DOGE’s rummaging through that data was against the law. Meanwhile, a high-profile member of DOGE has ties to cybercrime specifically related to “stolen data.”
This is an outright corruption scandal that threatens a lifeline for the middle class. And it’s unfolding just as Trump’s tariff taxes on hardworking families are raising the costs he promised to lower, while causing economic growth, job creation, and consumer confidence to fall.
It’s a corruption scandal that proves—with actions—just how much Trump’s central campaign promises were lies. He’s not fighting against the wealthy establishment. He’s selling his own voters—and everyone else—out to that establishment, because he’s a card-carrying member. And so is unelected billionaire Elon Musk. The American people deserve to know that. We should make sure they do.
Andrew Bates was the White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary in the Biden-Harris Administration and a national spokesperson on the Biden campaign in 2020.
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Of course it is , musk thinks that entire ship belongs to him and him alone , atop the fact that he believes it’s a Ponzi scheme. Social Security is a third rail politics issue, however, and the longer that musk continues to fuck around with it the more likely that it is gonna cause problems for Trump and the GOP. https://thistleandmoss.com/p/elon-musk-the-us-social-security
This is sickening. I paid into Social Security for over 40 years. I earned the check I receive every month. This has to be illegal and a suit against Trump DOGGIE, and Musk to stop this. He is violating the SSA Act, and it needs to be saved? The a** lickers in Congress do not have a spine to stop them!