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'Welcome to the Oligarchy Era': Social Security Administration Switches Communications to Musk's X
"This flagrant conflict of interest stands to serve the interests of Elon Musk while the American people are robbed of fair access to THEIR Social Security Administration," said one former agency leader.
Apr 11, 2025
The Trump administration faced a fresh wave of criticism on Friday in response to reporting that the Social Security Administration is cutting its communications staff and will shift from using press releases to billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X.
Musk, the richest person on Earth, is notably also the de facto leader of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is leading the administration's effort to gut the federal bureaucracy—though the billionaire faces a rapidly approaching 130-day limit for how long he can serve as a "special government employee" under federal law.
"Elon Musk is forcing seniors onto X to learn about and get news about Social Security," Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, which advocates for universal healthcare, wrote on the platform Friday. "The only person this benefits is Elon Musk. Welcome to the oligarchy era."
Martin O'Malley, who led the agency during the Biden administration, also
responded to the reporting on X, saying, "This flagrant conflict of interest stands to serve the interests of Elon Musk while the American people are robbed of fair access to THEIR Social Security Administration and the benefits they worked so hard to earn."
During a Thursday call with employees, SSA Midwest-West (MWW) Regional Commissioner Linda Kerr-Davis said that instead of making announcements via press releases or "Dear Colleague" letters, "the agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public—formerly known as Twitter," according toFederal News Network. "This will become our communication mechanism."
"If you're used to getting press releases and Dear Colleague letters, you might want to subscribe to the official SSA X account, so you can stay up to date with agency news," Kerr-Davis told agency workers. "I know this probably sounds very foreign to you—it did to me as well—and not what we are used to, but we are in different times now."
Federal News Network also detailed her comments on reassigning workers to minimize the need for layoffs at the agency:
The reassignments will lead to major staffing cuts to regional offices. Kerr-Davis said the MWW regional office has about 550 employees now, but will only have about 70 employees under the new "skinny regional office" model.
"Won't losing subject-matter experts lead directly to fraud, waste, and abuse? Yes," Kerr-Davis told employees. "Things are going to break, and they're going to break fast. We know that, but hopefully we'll be able to get some support."
Kerr-Davis added that the reassignments will be a "welcome addition" for understaffed field offices. But in many cases, reassigned employees will work in less senior positions.
"I can only imagine how this shift might make them feel, after years of dedicated service in their prior roles. They are used to being experts in their field, and we're asking them to take on new responsibilities," she said. "For some, it's going back to work they used to do a long time ago, which may look very different."
Kerr-Davis' comments were also reported Friday by Wired, which noted that she did not respond to a request for comment. However, Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, said: "This reporting is misleading. The Social Security Administration is actively communicating with beneficiaries and stakeholders."
"There has not been a reduction in workforce," Huston told Wired. "Rather, to improve the delivery of services, staff are being reassigned from regional offices to front-line help—allocating finite resources where they are most needed. President Trump will continue to always protect Social Security."
HuffPostpointed out Friday that "in recent weeks, queries to the SSA press line have produced responses from White House spokespeople instead of Social Security spokespeople."
The SSA has not published a press release on its website since March 27, but has been sharing updates on its X account, @SocialSecurity, in recent weeks—the latest post, from Wednesday, addresses the rollback of a planned identity verification policy and related phone service cuts.
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees president Lee Saunders said in a Friday statement that "retirees, disabled individuals, and the millions of beneficiaries who rely on Social Security should not need an X account to receive updates on the program."
"Moving all Social Security communications to Elon Musk's personal social media platform is a blatant effort to gain more users and pad X's profits," the union leader charged. "This move should ring alarm bells everywhere. Social Security belongs to the hardworking taxpayers who have paid into the program, not an unelected billionaire like Musk."
"This administration has made their desire to gut and then privatize Social Security clear. Shuttering the program's regional offices and moving all communications to a single, unaccountable, insecure, for-profit social media company is just the next step in their scheme to enrich billionaires with our tax dollars," he added. "This is exactly why we need to keep Musk and his DOGE cronies out of the Social Security Administration, and we're not going to give up this fight."
AFSCME, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Alliance for Retired Americans are fighting DOGE's access to sensitive personal data at the SSA in federal court.
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Here Comes Trump's Privatization of the Social Security Administration
"After years of hard work and a lifetime of contributions, our seniors shouldn't have to worry about Republicans meddling with their Social Security," said one House Democrat.
Mar 04, 2025
A leaked email from acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Leland Dudek on Tuesday sparked a fresh wave of warnings about U.S. President Donald Trump and government-gutting billionaire Elon Musk privatizing the agency.
The Bulwark, an anti-Trump conservative news outlet, obtained Dudek's March 1 email to staff, which reportedly says in part that "we need to revitalize SSA operations by streamlining activities, outsource nonessential functions to industry experts, and reinstating human judgment and common sense into every decision at every level."
While Dudek did not elaborate on what outsourcing "nonessential functions" will look like, according to The Bulwark, Martin O'Malley, who led the agency under former President Joe Biden, warned that it could involve automation and the use of artificial intelligence to replace call centers staffed by people trained to help seniors and other beneficiaries sort out complex problems.
O'Malley also said that SSA employees he knows report a "toxic" work environment. He told the The Bulwark that "they are driving people out there with a viciousness that I believe will collapse the agency," which could result in an "interruption of benefits."
"We have a 50-year low in staffing while the baby boomer generation is swelling their ranks," O'Malley said. "That's the underlying reality here, and these guys appear hell-bent on breaking it. It seems they really want to break Social Security."
The former SSA commissioner isn't alone in expressing serious concerns about Dudek, the president, and Musk, head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is leading the Trump administration's attack on federal agenices.
Responding to The Bulwark's reporting on the Musk-owned social media site X, House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said that "after years of hard work and a lifetime of contributions, our seniors shouldn't have to worry about Republicans meddling with their Social Security. This is an attack on our nation's seniors—plain and simple."
Also weighing in on X, Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) declared that "in no way, shape, or form, should we privatize any aspect of Social Security."
Concerns have mounted following a series of events last week, including a wave of Social Security Administration leaders retiring and the agency telling staff that it would be implementing an "organizational restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions." The SSA confirmed a goal to have only 50,000 workers, which requires forcing out 7,000 people.
"With that came an announcement that the agency will consolidate its current 10 regional offices down to four, as well as reorganize headquarters," Government Executivereported. "And Elon Musk's DOGE operatives have canceled the leases for 45 field offices across the country, as well as the Office of Hearings Operations in White Plains, New York."
House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Ranking Member John Larson (D-Conn.) this week led a letter to Dudek signed by over 150 of the chamber's Democrats, who warned that office closures and layoffs "will devastate SSA's ability to serve the public and deliver Social Security payments, inflicting backdoor benefit cuts on the American people."
"Social Security helps approximately 70 million beneficiaries—including seniors, people with disabilities, children, and their families—put food on the table, pay the rent, heat their homes, cover medical bills, and more," the House Democrats wrote. "Shuttering field offices and gutting SSA staffing has nothing to do with 'governmental efficiency.'"
Like O'Malley, they cited the already low staffing level that has led to customer service issues at the SSA. They stressed that office closures "and gutting staff would only deepen the crisis, chaos, and confusion. If the Trump administration is serious about efficiency in delivering benefits to the American people, it would ensure that SSA has the staff and offices needed to serve the public."
Senate Democrats are also sounding the alarm. Government Executivenoted that during a Monday press conference, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) accused Trump and Musk of "taking a wrecking ball" to the SSA while Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) warned that their actions are "a prelude to privatization."
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Official Installed by Trump Moves to 'Demolish' Social Security Administration
"This is nothing more than a backdoor benefit cut and an insult to Americans who have paid into the system and earned their Social Security—all to pay for trillions in new tax cuts for the wealthy," said Democratic Rep. John Larson.
Feb 27, 2025
The acting leader of the Social Security Administration reportedly instructed managers earlier this week to draw up plans for a 50% cut to the agency's workforce, a push that advocates and lawmakers said would result in the gutting or total closure of local field offices—and likely benefit disruptions.
The American Prospect first reported the request from Leland Dudek, whom Trump installed as SSA commissioner earlier this month after the agency's former head resigned following a clash with Elon Musk's deputies over their attempts to access highly sensitive personal data. At the time he was elevated to the helm of SSA, Dudek was under investigation for allegedly sharing information with Musk's team improperly.
According to the Prospect, the deadline for SSA managers to comply with Dudek's request for mass-firing plans was Wednesday afternoon.
"The decision could target one of the government's most prominent public-facing initiatives: SSA field offices, where seniors, people with disabilities, and survivors whose parents have died can sign up for benefits and get information," the outlet noted. "In an email to the Prospect, SSA would not confirm any reductions in its workforce beyond the abolition of two small internal offices announced this week... Sources have speculated to the Prospect that the terminations are being done piecemeal to avoid headlines of tens of thousands of jobs lost."
"Laying off half of the workforce at the Social Security Administration and shuttering field offices will mean the delay, disruption, and denial of benefits."
Nancy Altman, president of the progressive advocacy group Social Security Works, said in a statement Wednesday that Dudek's push for large-scale staff cuts shows the Trump administration and Elon Musk want to "demolish" SSA.
"Contrary to what Elon Musk and his acolytes may believe, AI chatbots are no substitute for in-person service from a human being," said Altman. "Americans apply for Social Security benefits at the most vulnerable times of their lives. Moreover, many people who seek information may have trouble articulating or even knowing what questions they need to ask."
"If Musk's plan goes through, it will deny many Americans access to their hard-earned Social Security benefits. Field offices around the country will close. Wait times for the 1-800 number will soar," Altman warned. "DOGE claims to be concerned about fraud, but the best way to detect fraud is through face-to-face contacts with humans who can detect suspicious responses and can read body language. It's not too late to stop this disaster. We urge everyone to call their members of Congress and tell them that local Social Security offices must stay open and fully staffed."
In the wake of the Prospect's story, Government Executivereported that five of the eight regional SSA commissioners "whose offices oversee and support the agency's frontline offices across the country" have decided to leave their posts at the end of this week amid the Trump administration's onslaught against the federal workforce.
"Their departures come amid rumors of impending staff cuts at SSA, where the workforce is already at a 50-year low and has toiled amid a customer service crisis born of lack of funding," Government Executive noted. "Decades of congressional neglect have seen the agency's administrative budget, which for decades sat at 1.2% of benefit outlays, shrink to under 1%."
The outlet added that "regional commissioners aren't the only ones leaving SSA. An unknown number of other employees are also leaving the agency, which shuttered its civil rights and transformation offices this week."
Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor who served as SSA commissioner under the Biden administration, wrote late Wednesday that "Social Security is being driven to a total system collapse."
"I give the DOGE kids and co-President Musk 30-90 days before they crater it to the point of interruption of benefits," O'Malley added.
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), a champion of Social Security and vocal supporter of expanding benefits, said in a statement that "Donald Trump pledged no cuts to Social Security on the campaign trail, but now he and Elon Musk have plans to do exactly that."
"Let me be clear—laying off half of the workforce at the Social Security Administration and shuttering field offices will mean the delay, disruption, and denial of benefits," said Larson. "This is nothing more than a backdoor benefit cut and an insult to Americans who have paid into the system and earned their Social Security—all to pay for trillions in new tax cuts for the wealthy. This has nothing to do with 'governmental efficiency.'"
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