DOGE Is Pressuring Social Security to Make Another Massive Cut

The Social Security Administration might slash the telephone service that millions of retired and disabled Americans use to apply for and access their earned benefits.

The Washington Post reports that the Department of Government Efficiency is pressuring the agency to root out alleged fraud, and in response, the SSA is considering ending its phone service, which processes claims and bank transactions through direct deposit. Instead, the agency would direct elderly and disabled people to the internet and in-person field offices.

While the decision is not yet finalized, a meeting held Tuesday at the agency wasn’t positive. DOGE workers pressed SSA officials about possible phone fraud, but weren’t receptive when the officials suggested solutions. The DOGE personnel “weren’t interested in anything else but defending the decision that they had already made,” one of Post’s sources said.

Current and former Social Security officials told the Post that the move to curtail its phone system would threaten the agency’s ability to serve the public, especially since older and disabled Social Security recipients have difficulty using the internet, as well as visiting offices in person.

“It is a 180-degree policy shift,” said one employee. “It would be the single largest service disruption in agency history ever.”

There are about 9.5 million Social Security claims each year for retirement, disability, and survivor benefits as well as Supplemental Security Income, and in 2024, the agency paid out benefits worth $1.5 trillion. Eighty-six percent of Americans age 65 and over receive Social Security payments. About 40 percent of claims are made on the phone, and the agency received 81.2 million phone calls to its toll-free number in 2023.

The phone service is also used to answer questions about retirement, benefits, and death benefit forms, among other issues. While employees in the agency say fraud is a problem, it’s not widespread enough to justify ditching the phone service altogether. But since the DOGE service launched, Musk and the Trump administration have constantly pushed for widespread cuts, alleging massive fraud in nearly every government agency despite little evidence.

At the SSA, Musk and DOGE have alleged that “tens of millions” of dead people are receiving Social Security payments, but this was quickly disproven. Still, Trump and Musk have continued to double down on the claims, with the tech mogul–fascism enthusiast calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and repeatedly urging massive cuts.

The FBI is moving to criminalize groups like Habitat for Humanity for receiving grants from the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration.

Citibank revealed in a court filing Wednesday that it was told to freeze the groups’ bank accounts at the FBI’s request. The reason? The FBI alleges that the groups are involved in “possible criminal violations,” including “conspiracy to defraud the United States.”

“The FBI has told Citibank that recipients of EPA climate grants are being considered as potentially liable for fraud. That is, the Trump administration wants to criminalize work on climate science and impacts,” the @capitolhunters account wrote Wednesday on X. “An incoming administration not only cancels federal grants but declares recipients as criminals. All these grantees applied under government calls FOR ENVIRONMENTAL WORK, were reviewed and accepted. Trump wants to jail them.“

The Appalachian Community Capital Corporation, the Coalition for Green Capital, and the DC Green Bank are just some of the nonprofits being targeted.

“This is not fraud. This is targeted harassment,” @capitolhunters continued. “The idea of criminalizing community climate work wouldn’t have originated at the FBI—it likely comes from EPA director Lee Zeldin, who today cut all EPA’s environmental justice offices, which try to reduce pollution in poor and minority communities.”

Zeldin’s order eliminates 10 EPA regional offices as well as the one in Washington, D.C.

Consumers across the world are boycotting American products in protest of literally everything Donald Trump is doing.

In Canada, American liquor, wine, and spirits have been pulled off the shelves in response to Trump’s tariff war with America’s northern ally. Canadians have booed the American national anthem at hockey games, and trips across the southern border dropped 23 percent last month from the same time last year.

In Sweden and Denmark, people are calling for a boycott of American companies, including McDonalds, Amazon, and KFC, after Trump pulled military funding for Ukraine. A Danish Facebook group, Boykot varer fra USA, which translates to “Boycott Goods from the U.S.,” has over 70,000 members. Users post about alternatives to American products, and support one another in boycotting American products.

“I have been in the group for a few days and can already feel my joy at my increased consumer awareness,” one user posted.

And across the world, electric vehicle buyers are refusing to buy Teslas in rejection of Elon Musk’s shadow presidency, his support for the far-right German party AfD, his hand gesture that looked like a Nazi salute, his slashing of federal funding through the Department of Government Efficiency … the list goes on.

In Germany, Europe’s largest market for E.V.s, Tesla’s sales are down 70 percent since last year. Sales are plummeting in Australia, Sweden, and Norway too. The company’s stock dropped 15 percent on Monday alone.

Trump tried to defend Musk, and said he will buy a Tesla in support of “Elon’s baby.”

“To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is putting it ‘on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they so often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers and Elon’s baby,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

It’s unclear just how effective the global boycott of American products and culture will be, but it no doubt indicates the world is fed up with Trump’s and his reckless pursuit of chaos.

A federal judge stopped a hearing about Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service members in its tracks Wednesday, calling for a recess from proceedings to invite the Department of Justice’s lawyer to actually read up on the policy they were defending.

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes had criticized the department’s lawyer for not having read three reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited in his policy banning transgender members of the military, according to Politico’s senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney, who posted several updates on the hearing on X.

An internal memo issued by the Pentagon in February “disqualified” transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military.

“Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are disqualified from military service,” the memo said, also banning individuals who had a “history of cross-sex hormone therapy or a history of sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria or in pursuit of a sex transition.”

Reyes claimed that Hegseth’s policy banning transgender service members had “egregiously misquoted” the three reports it cited, and she couldn’t believe that the Justice Department’s lawyer hadn’t bothered to actually read them.

Reyes requested that the court take a 30-minute break, and asked the department’s lawyer to review the reports and compare how they’d been misquoted by Hegseth in his policy. Then, they could tell her whether they believe she could reasonably rely on Hegseth’s interpretation of those reports.

When the court resumed, Reyes pointed out that one study Hegseth had relied on to demonstrate that transgender service members hurt troop readiness and weaken their unit, actually concluded the exact opposite. The study found that transgender service members were more deployable, and experienced fewer lapses in their service than those diagnosed with depression, who were not automatically excluded from service.

But that wasn’t all. As Reyes went through each of the findings cited in the ban, she found that “virtually every” one contradicted support for Hegseth’s policy, according to Cheney.

Reyes asked the DOJ lawyer why she should defer to Hegseth’s blatant “cherrypicking” and providing “misleading” analysis.

In a brief memo filed in court on February 10, Hegseth directed the military to stop integrating new recruits “with a history of gender dysphoria” and to pause “planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition.” The policy wouldn’t affect the estimated 9,000 to 14,000 transgender individuals currently serving the military.

Later in February, as part of a complaint the Pentagon filed against Reyes, accusing her of “misconduct,” indicating potential bias in the case, an internal Pentagon memo was revealed that pushed the ban even further.

Hegseth’s policy notes that transgender service members “may be considered for a waiver on a case-by-case basis, provided there is a compelling Government interest.”

To obtain an exemption, a soldier must demonstrate “stability” in their sex for 36 consecutive months, demonstrate that they have never attempted to transition to any sex other than their sex, and be willing to adhere to any standards associated with their sex, according to Fox News.

Hegseth’s memo followed Trump’s executive order revoking a Biden-era policy allowing transgender service members in the military. “Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” the order said.

This story has been updated.

In a rare display of credibility, even Fox hosts aren’t buying the Trump administration’s lies about tariffs.

In an interview Wednesday with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney pointed to the rising cost of aluminum, steel, and copper from Trump’s 25 percent tariff on imported metals, which went into effect the same day.

“That could ripple through the entire manufacturing sector and raise the level of inflation. Could that lead to a recession?” Varney pressed Lutnick.

Lutnick dodged the question, proceeded to mansplain inflation, and—of course—blame national debt on the Democrats.

“Let’s take a step back and remember inflation, right? Inflation comes from a government printing too much money. The Biden administration having a $2 trillion deficit,” Lutnick said.

“You don’t get inflation from having a tariff, because what a tariff says is if it’s made in Europe, if it’s made foreign, it might cost a little more, but that which is made in America does not cost more,” he went on, before implying the solution is merely to support American manufacturers.

“We make plenty of steel in America.”

Seemingly stunned by Lutnick’s ignorance, Varney pointed to the obvious. “Domestic producers can’t keep up with the demand,” he said.

He’s right. In 2023, the U.S. imported 23.6 million tons of steel and imported 44 percent of its aluminum in the same year, a demand that is much too high for struggling American metal producers to meet.

A failure to meet demand will lead to higher prices on everything from cars, refrigerators, beers, and canned goods to home appliances, experts warn.

“The supply is limited, the demand is strong, the price is going up,” Varney added, pressing the former private equity CEO.

Lutnick’s solution? Build more manufacturing plants, which could take years. All the while, American manufacturers and consumers will continue to suffer from Trump’s disastrous global trade war.