President Donald Trump has replaced the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration after Michelle King left the agency rather than give billionaire Elon Musk’s task force access to sensitive information about hundreds of millions of Americans.
King, who was with the agency for more than 30 years before becoming its acting director last month, left over the holiday weekend. She declined to give the Musk-led effort to cut federal spending and the workforce, known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), access to a centralized database that includes information about income, addresses, retirement benefits and sometimes even medical records for any American with a Social Security number, people familiar with the situation told The 19th. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency or the individuals involved.
King could not immediately be reached to comment.
Her departure was first reported by The Washington Post.
Trump selected as acting commissioner Leland Dudek, who heads an anti-fraud office at the Social Security Administration. Dudek had posted content supportive of DOGE on his LinkedIn page, the sources said. As of Monday night, Dudek’s LinkedIn page had been removed. Dudek did not respond to a request to comment.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told The 19th in a statement: “President Trump has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner.”
Social Security is a government program that provides financial benefits to people who are retired, disabled or the surviving beneficiary of someone who paid into the system via payroll taxes. In recent years, women have made up more than half of Social Security retirement beneficiaries over the age of 62 and made up 95 percent of Social Security survivor beneficiaries.
Social Security is a primary source of income later in life for older Americans, particularly those who did not have employer-provided pensions or retirement savings plans. Monthly Social Security benefits are based on work history and women receive average benefits that are only about 80 percent of what men receive, in part due to lower wages, shorter work histories and workforce interruptions to care for children or aging parents.
Unmarried women and widows rely more heavily on Social Security income than men or married couples do. More than half of elderly households report that Social Security benefits make up more than half of their income; for a quarter of elderly households, the benefits make up at least 90 percent. American women live, on average, about six years longer than men.
Trump said during his reelection campaign he would not cut Social Security benefits but would look to reduce waste and fraud at the agency.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that Trump had asked Musk and his team to identify fraud at the agency. “They haven’t dug into the books yet but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments,” she said.
“If you paid into the system honestly you will continue to receive your Social Security checks,” Leavitt said, adding that Musk’s team would be focused on identifying duplicate payments, payments to deceased people and other types of fraud.
DOGE’s push to access the data maintained by the Social Security Administration came as it also sought access to detailed financial information about millions of individual taxpayers, businesses and nonprofit organizations maintained by the Internal Revenue Service.
Thousands of Americans protested Monday in cities including Washington, New York and Boston, objecting to the actions Trump has taken in the early weeks of his presidency — and to the outsized role that Musk is playing in the administration.
Great Job Amanda Becker & the Team @ The 19th Source link for sharing this story.
