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accountable.us
Bessent Admits Trump Tax Scam Offers 'Backdoor for Privatizing Social Security'
"Despite their repeated claims they wanted to protect Social Security, the Trump administration said the quiet part out loud," said one critic in response to the billionaire treasury secretary's candid comments.
Jul 30, 2025
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday admitted that a provision in Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a mechanism for privatizing Social Security—something President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he won't do.
Speaking at a policy event hosted by the far-right news site Breitbart, Bessent touted the so-called "Trump accounts" available to all U.S. citizen children starting next July under the OBBBA signed by the president earlier this month.
"In a way, it is a backdoor way for privatizing Social Security," the billionaire former hedge fund manager said of the accounts. "Social Security is a defined benefit plan paid out—that to the extent that if all of a sudden these accounts grow, and you have in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for your retirement, that's a game-changer."
Responding to Bessent's admission, Tim Hogan—the Democratic National Committee senior adviser for messaging, mobilization, and strategy—said that the treasury secretary "just said the quiet part out loud: The administration is scheming to privatize Social Security."
"It wasn't enough to kick millions of people off their healthcare and take food away from hungry kids," Hogan added. "Trump is now coming after American seniors with a 'backdoor' scam to take away the benefits they earned. Democrats won't stand by as Trump screws over working families in order to give more handouts to billionaires."
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said in a statement: "Today, the treasury secretary said the quiet part out loud: Republicans' ultimate goal is to privatize Social Security, and there isn't a backdoor they won't try to make Wall Street's dream a reality. For everyone else though, it's yet another warning sign that they cannot be trusted to safeguard the program millions rely on and have paid into over a lifetime of work."
Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, mocked Trump's promises to preserve the key program upon which more than 70 million Americans rely—and called him out for eviscerating the Social Security Administration (SSA).
"So much for Donald Trump's campaign promise to protect Social Security," Altman said in a statement. "First, he gave Elon Musk the power to gut SSA. Now, Trump's treasury secretary has said the quiet part out loud. He is bragging about the administration's goal to privatize Social Security."
"First, they are undermining public confidence in Social Security by making false claims about fraud (which is virtually nonexistent) and wrecking the system's service to the public," Altman continued. "Then, once they have broken Social Security, they will say that Wall Street needs to come in and save it."
"That is a terrible idea," she added. "Unlike private savings, Social Security is a guaranteed earned benefit that you can't outlive. It has stood strong through wars, recessions, and pandemics. The American people have a message for Trump and Bessent: Keep Wall Street's hands off our Social Security!"
Alliance for Retired Americans executive director Richard Fiesta said that "Bessent let the cat out of the bag: This administration is coming for Social Security."
"We're not surprised—but we are alarmed because this administration has already taken multiple steps to weaken and dismantle Social Security," Fiesta added, highlighting the weakening of the SSA, false fraud claims, and "the massive tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations" under the OBBBA that experts say will hasten the Social Security Trust Fund's insolvency.
The progressive watchdog Accountable.US called Bessent's remarks "a shocking confession."
"Despite their repeated claims they wanted to protect Social Security, the Trump administration said the quiet part out loud: The Big Ugly Betrayal is a backdoor way to privatize Social Security," Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk said in a statement.
"Once again the administration is risking the financial security of millions of Americans in order to protect a system rigged in the favor of big corporations and billionaires," Carrk added.
In another blow to Social Security recipients, the Trump administration is set to implement a new policy next month that is expected to further increase wait times for basic services. As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, starting in mid-August, SSA will no longer allow seniors to use their phones for routine tasks they've been able to perform for decades.
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How GOP's Crypto Bills Would Benefit Trump and His Family
Passing any bill that lets the president "enrich himself from deeper in the shadows is a recipe for American workers getting sold out to the highest bidder," warned the head of Accountable.US.
Jul 17, 2025
A new analysis details precisely how a slate of proposed cryptocurrency bills making their way through Congress this week, if passed, will enrich U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his family who are heavily invested in the crypto markets.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives continued their fight to pass the GOP's cryptocurrency bills on Thursday, despite warnings from Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups that the legislation would personally benefit Trump.
As right-wing hard-liners on Wednesday thwarted Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) effort to advance the trio of bills, the watchdog Accountable.US released an analysis highlighting how the industry-backed package would "bolster Trump's business empire while putting American interests at risk."
The bills that the House is considering during "Crypto Week" are:
- the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which would create a regulatory framework for a type of cryptocurrency called stablecoin, and passed the Senate 68-30 last month;
- the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which would create a regulatory framework for digital asset markets; and
- the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which would prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The Accountable analysis focuses on the first two bills. The group's executive director, Tony Carrk, said in a statement that "the so-called GENIUS and CLARITY acts ironically do nothing to lift the cloak of mystery and unaccountability that shrouds the Trump family crypto interests around the world, leaving American interests at high risk."
"The president has already demonstrated he'll seemingly take money from anyone, even possible criminal elements and foreign adversaries," he noted. "So to pass a bill that lets Trump... enrich himself from deeper in the shadows is a recipe for American workers getting sold out to the highest bidder. The real clarity we have about this president is he fights to give his billionaire buddies a tax break and profit from his office while betraying the working Americans he claims to represent."
The CLARITY Act would "significantly" limit the regulatory role of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), "which already has been severely weakened under Trump and has oversight over many Trump crypto products," the analysis details. It would also "put the less robust Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) 'at the center' of digital asset regulation."
According to Accountable:
- Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which has made a "fast and furious" move into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, disclosed to the SEC that, "if Bitcoin is determined to constitute a security"—which it likely would not be under the CLARITY Act—it could "adversely affect" Bitcoin's price and the price of Trump Media's offerings.
- World Liberty Financial Inc. (WLFI) has disclosed to the SEC that its token sales to "non-U.S. persons" were not believed to be an issuance of securities subject to SEC oversight. In the same SEC filing, it disclosed President Trump as a WLFI "promoter," but curiously claimed he was not actually a promoter for federal Securities Act purposes. Under the CLARITY Act, WLFI could enjoy lighter regulation by the CFTC as a digital commodities platform—or, it could be "subject to almost no federal oversight" as a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform run on automatic protocols, according to Wall Street watchdog Americans for Financial Reform.
- Just weeks after the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins launched, the Trump SEC stated that meme coins are not subject to federal securities law, with one dissenting SEC commissioner calling the guidance "a roadmap for crypto enterprises looking to evade oversight by labeling themselves as a meme coin." Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, said the SEC was shortchanging average retail investors while helping "the president's bottom line." The CLARITY Act would likely shield Trump's meme coins even further from SEC oversight.
A coalition of over 80 groups—including Accountable.US, Americans for Financial Reform, and Demand Progress—wrote to Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday that the CLARITY Act "creates loopholes or confusing legal questions that crypto and non-crypto firms will exploit in order to evade existing regulatory standards, causing more damage."
"The legislation gives the shady practices and endemic fraud in the crypto industry a government imprimatur without adequate guardrails to protect investors and the financial system and unleashes and rewards the administration's crypto corruption," the coalition warned, urging members of the chamber to vote against the bil.
Meanwhile, the GENIUS Act would let banks and private entities issue stablecoins—which are pegged to the value of existing assets such as the U.S. dollar—with "light oversight" and could "enable corruption, screw over taxpayers, and potentially destabilize the economy," warns Accountable's new report.
The publication points out that the Trump family's WLFI has launched its own "USD1" stablecoin, which was used in a $2 billion transaction between MGX, a fund backed by the United Arab Emirates, and the crypto exchange Binance, "just weeks before the Trump administration dropped a securities case" against Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao.
WLFI also announced on social media Wednesday that investors in its token voted to make the crypto tradable on public exchanges. Sludge reported that "the decision could boost the token's price and directly benefit President Trump and his family, who hold billions of the tokens and have already reaped hundreds of millions from its early sales."
Warren, the report notes, has warned that the GENIUS Act would "create a superhighway for Donald Trump's corruption."
They’re calling it the GENIUS Act—but @repmaxinewaters.bsky.social isn’t buying it.She lays it out: Trump’s billionaire donors get richer, 17 million Americans lose health care, and now Congress wants to bless digital money that benefits his inner circle.
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— Accountable.US (@accountable.us) July 17, 2025 at 12:35 PM
After a handful of hard-line Republicans tanked a procedural vote on the crypto package Tuesday, Trump hosted a meeting at the White House and later announced a deal had been reached to pass the legislation.
However, when Wednesday came, "committee chairs pushed back at hard-liners' demands to attach a central bank digital currency ban" to the CLARITY Act, Politico reported. "The impasse kept the House rule vote open for nine hours until GOP leaders finally cut a late-night deal to include a CBDC ban in the National Defense Authorization Act."
Now, Johnson has to juggle the defense and crypto legislation with a Trump rescission package that Senate Republicans passed overnight. As Politico put it: "If something's got to give, watch to see whether all three cryptocurrency bills end up getting a vote this week as planned. One possibility under discussion is passing only the Senate-approved stablecoin bill, which Trump wants to sign as soon as possible, and punting the other votes."
Congressional Democrats are divided on the GOP package, and leadership is not whipping for or against it. Politico obtained a Monday notice from the office of House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) that, according to the outlet, "sharply criticized both a crypto market structure bill and a Senate stablecoin measure that the lower chamber is slated to vote on, but did not tell members how to vote."
Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Don Davis (D-N.C.), and Ritchie Torres (D-NY) are original co-sponsors of the CLARITY Act. Craig still wants Democrats to support the legislation, Semafor reported Tuesday, and both Davis and Torres joined Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) in a Monday letter urging their Democratic colleagues to vote for it, arguing that "although this bill is not without its shortcomings and may still be improved, inaction is not a viable option."
More Perfect Union on Tuesday published a report detailing how Davis, Torres, and Gottheimer have collectively taken millions from cryptocurrency industry executives and political groups. Responding to the findings on social media, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said that "it's a terrible bill that basically endorses Trump's massive crypto corruption scheme. Democrats will regret voting for it."
It's not just Trump and his family who could benefit from the bills. A separate Washington Post analysis published Thursday found that "nearly 70 Trump administration officials and nominees held cryptocurrency or investments in blockchain or digital-asset companies at the time of their selection, with stakes ranging from small to more than $120 million."
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'Self-Enrichment': JD Vance Stands to Profit From Trump Military Contracts, Crypto Reserve
Financial disclosures analyzed by Accountable.US reveal that the vice president is invested in several defense contractors that have reaped lavish contracts since Trump's return to office.
Jul 11, 2025
The Trump administration has given contracts to four defense contractors that Vice President JD Vance has a financial stake in, according to a report by the government watchdog group Accountable.US.
Financial disclosure forms published by the Office of Government Ethics for June 2025 reveal that through at least the end of 2024—the last date at which he was required to disclose his investments—Vance had anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000 invested in Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based venture capital group he helped to found before taking office.
Rise of the Rest is invested in at least four military contractors that have since received large contracts from the Trump-Vance administration. Two of them received those contracts—worth millions of dollars—within two weeks of Trump beginning his second term.
Hermeus, the maker of hypersonic aircraft, received a contract worth $9.36 million from the Department of Defense in February. Another company, Slingshot Aerospace, has been awarded $1.7 million in contracts from the Air Force. The report notes that Slingshot's tools, which include GPS monitoring technology, have been used in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The most lucrative company in Vance's portfolio is Anduril, which has received an eye-popping $220 million in government contracts since Trump and Vance took office and seen a 125% increase in its valuation.
It is expected to reap massive new contracts from the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" that Trump signed into law earlier this month through its creation of expansive new border surveillance technology.
As Sam Biddle reported for The Intercept on Wednesday, the bill includes language that effectively grants Anduril "a monopoly on new surveillance towers for U.S. Customs and Border Protection":
A provision buried in the new mega-legislation stipulates that none of the $6 billion border tech payday can be spent on border towers unless they've been "tested and accepted by [CBP] to deliver autonomous capabilities."…
That reads like a description of Anduril's product—because it might as well be. A CBP spokesperson confirmed to The Intercept that under the new law, Anduril is now the country's only approved border tower vendor.
Anduril is also reportedly one of the main firms in contention for contracts to help build Trump's $175 billion "Golden Dome" security system.
Vance left Revolution in 2020 to start his own venture capital firm, Narya Capital, and two of the companies received investments from his previous firm after his departure. However, Vance directly acknowledged that he had a financial stake in all four of them on a Senate financial disclosure form in 2023, "indicating awareness of the investments," according to Accountable.US.
The Rise of the Rest Seed Fund presents other potential conflicts of interest as well. In addition to its investments in the defense industry, it has also been a major backer of The Bitcoin Company, providing it with more than $2.1 million in seed money in 2022.
Vance himself is a major Bitcoin enthusiast. His disclosures reveal that he personally holds anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000 worth of the cryptocurrency.
During his time in the White House, President Donald Trump has launched initiatives meant to supercharge the cryptocurrency industry, including a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve," which sent the digital currency's price soaring in March.
Accountability.US executive director Tony Carrk describes Vance's financial entanglements as part of a broader pattern within the Trump administration.
"Vance's background and investments in companies benefiting from Trump government contracts come as no surprise given this administration’s record of benefiting themselves while raising costs and gutting health care for hardworking Americans," he said.
Past reports by the group have highlighted the president's own profiteering from cryptocurrency and other financial ventures. And last month, an investigation revealed that Donald Trump, Jr. also stood to profit tremendously from the "Golden Dome" project via his own investments in Anduril and Elon Musk's company SpaceX.
"As much as the Trump administration claims to be draining the swamp, their conflicts of interest, self-enrichment, and ties to special interests show they are creatures of it," said Caark. "Vice President JD Vance is no exception."
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