The Trump White House ordered the Social Security Administration (SSA) to speed up its coming cuts to phone services, Axios reports.
Pres. Donald Trump promised he “won’t touch” Social Security, but has a long legal history of touching things he’s not supposed to. And the White House told the Washington Post that Trump’s promise only extended to Social Security benefit levels that Congress sets and that he therefore can’t legally touch. (Which hasn’t stopped him from bad-touching before.)
What Trump can touch/violate is the agency itself. And Axios reports that’s going more-than-full-steam ahead.
Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek said yesterday in a meeting — with people he will never talk to again now that he knows they blab to the Washington Post — that Trump’s request will make things worse, increasing the opportunities for crooks to rip off Social Security beneficiaries. (The chaos means that beneficiaries will be unsure of what’s going on, and scammers can exploit that uncertainty.)
