Posted on 08/14/2025 12:50:26 PM PDT by Red Badger
On the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act, President Donald J. Trump delivered a stirring proclamation in the Oval Office, promising to “Make Social Security Great Again.”
Trump celebrated the passage of his signature legislation, the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which includes a temporary senior tax deduction, effectively eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits for many recipients aged 65 and above from 2025 through 2028.
As part of the administration’s push to “root out fraud, waste, and abuse,” Trump touted removing 275,000 illegal aliens from the Social Security system and clearing 12.4 million names listed as being over 120 years old.
In his remarks and through a White House post, he claimed many of these phantom entries were getting benefits.
Trump:
“Last month, I signed one big, beautiful bill and allowed no tax on Social Security for our great seniors. Okay, so how’s that? Not bad, right? No tax on Social Security for our seniors.
To protect our benefits, we’ve already kicked nearly 275,000 illegal aliens off of the Social Security system. These are people—many of them have already left the country—and yet we were sending them checks all the time.
And 275,000… that number is now even larger than that, Frank. It’s an unbelievable job, and what that’s doing is making the system strong. It’s making it strong.
Biden never kicked anybody off. Everybody joined. And we’re carrying out historic deportations to remove many more illegals committing Social Security fraud. It’s the Social Security fraud that was taking place at levels that nobody’s ever seen.
We cleared 12.4 million names listed in the Social Security database over 120 years of age. Just think of that. So we had 12.4 million names where they were over 120 years old. Is that right? That’s a hell of a statement.
So you have 12.4 million names listed in the Social Security database that were over 120 years of age, meaning you were breaking records, because I’ve never heard of anybody at 125.
There were nearly 135,000 people listed who were over 160 years old, and in some cases getting payments. So somebody’s getting those payments, and we’re after that.”
The administration took credit for significant enhancements in SSA customer service: handling 70% more calls, reducing average hold times from 30 minutes to just six minutes, and driving a surge in automated self-service options, serving 90% of calls via technology-based solutions.
Field office wait times dropped 23%, and appointment usage quintupled.
More from the White House:
Social Security has transformed customer service.
The agency is handling 70% more calls than last year, while lowering the average speed of answer by 80%, from 30 minutes to just six minutes.
Improved use of technology has enabled 90% of calls to the national line to be served via automated self-service options or callbacks, further minimizing hold times.
Average customer wait times at field offices have declined by 23%, while five times as many visitors have scheduled appointments compared to last year.
All field offices are fully staffed, with employees returning to the office five days a week for the first time in years to better serve the American people. Social Security has made vast technology improvements.
Americans now have 24/7/365 access to their online accounts after reducing the longstanding scheduled downtime of 29 hours per week to zero — enabling over 280,000 more customers to access their online accounts in the first two weeks alone.
A new recording and transcription system to replace antiquated hardware is near full implementation — increasing accuracy and saving millions of dollars per year.
Innovative upgrades to phone technology have been deployed to 92% of field offices.
Social Security has driven down backlogs and delivered ahead of schedule.
There has been a 26% reduction in the backlog of initial disability claims from its all-time high last year, while the average processing time has been cut down by five days and the average wait time for a disability hearing has been cut by 60 days.
Over 3.1 million payments — totaling more than $17 billion — were sent to eligible beneficiaries under the Social Security Fairness Act five months ahead of schedule. Social Security has dramatically increased accountability.
The agency has identified more than $1 billion in cost avoidance and efficiencies this fiscal year.
The agency has addressed billions of dollars in improper payments.
After years of delay, Social Security is rolling out a new payroll information exchange that will transmit information directly from payroll providers — saving billions of dollars in payments over the next decade.
“So, how many of the 12.4 million 120 year old folks were still receiving checks/direct deposit for SS?”
They were not collecting regular Social Security payments. That would probably have been caught. Instead, many of these SS numbers were being used by illegals for other purposes.
I was going to comment on WWI myself. It ended going on 117 years ago, I can’t imagine anyone from that war is still alive, even if they went in as a young teenager.
It is interesting to look up the last veterans from any war. The oldest Revolutionary war vet lived to see the end of the Civil War.
Florence Green, a British citizen who served in the Allied armed forces as a Royal Air Force (WRAF) service member, is generally considered to have been the last verified veteran of the war at her death on 4 February 2012, aged 110. The last combat veteran was Claude Choules, who served in the British Royal Navy (and later the Royal Australian Navy) and died 5 May 2011, aged 110. The last veteran who served in the trenches was Harry Patch (British Army), who died on 25 July 2009, aged 111. The last Central Powers veteran, Franz Künstler of Austria-Hungary, died on 27 May 2008 at the age of 107.
Should have been standard procedure from the beginning.
Wow!
I’m going into the nursing home business!
Including 042-68-4425, originally applied for by Harrison J. Bounel born in 1890, and later usurped by Barack Obama?
“””No one really gives a shit about Epstein anymore.
He’s dead. Bubba Clinton, his biggest customer, is almost dead.
Trump isn’t involved and Melania is suing over fake accusations.
Go back to your shelter boob brain.”””
Apparently sarcasm is hard for you to understand.
The 120+ year old people were as a result of a bad default in the system.
One of the things with big databases is that keeping them “clean” is a huge job. And if you are not constantly “checking” the system, it can get out of hand real fast.
I am glad they are cleaning this mess up. It would be interesting to hear a dollar number associated with these deletions. For example, there were likely very few of the 120+ year olds getting any money. It’s good to clean them out, but it doesn’t save much. Now, the illegals getting money should be leading to investigations about how and why they were being paid anything.
The question is how many of those seasoned citizens were receiving benefits.
The fact that they exist somewhere in the SS computer system is not necessarily a bad thing.
Couple of my grandma’s sisters made it a few ?ears past 100. She was also 13 of 13. The baby. Farm girl.
Was that Justice Ginsberg?
Before she died, I heard she dated a Union Officer!
There was a time when CW veterans would marry a very young girl to give her his survivors benefits. Times were hard.
That was 160 years ago.
How many of the dead...voted?
I suspect a lot of those birth dates were 01/01/1901, and I have seen a lot of databases in which birthdates like that were entered, because a birthdate was required.
I wonder how many were being used for nefarious purposes.
Woo hoo, to DOGE!
Wish Elon and Trump would hug it out.
The Last Surviving Widow of a Civil War Veteran Dies at 101 (Jan 7, 2021)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/last-surviving-widow-civil-war-veteran-dies-101-180976702/
Just 3-1/2 years ago.
LOL!!!
Thank you Elon and your team!
Finally! People trying to save SS by excluding the grift. Agree 100%
Thank you Elon and those that worked with you.
Guess you could, in no particular order
1. Think about it
2. Vomit
Actually, why not both? YMMV
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