FACT CHECK: President Trump Will Always Protect Social Security, Medicare

Press Releases

TLDR

This press release claims to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid while eliminating fraud, but contradicts itself by supporting workforce reductions at SSA, endorsing significant Medicaid cuts, and exaggerating fraud statistics. The administration’s fraud-fighting rhetoric appears to be a strategy to justify substantial program reductions while maintaining plausible deniability about cutting benefits.

The claim that the Trump administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits requires careful examination, as there are contradictions between public statements and policy actions.

President Trump has repeatedly stated he won’t touch Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, focusing instead on eliminating fraud. In a recent Fox News interview, he said, “I’m going to [protect] Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. We’re going to eliminate fraud from the system”. The White House has reinforced this position, stating “The Trump Administration will not reduce Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits”.

However, these statements contradict several administration actions:

  1. The administration has ordered the Social Security Administration to reduce its workforce by half, which would significantly impact the agency’s ability to process claims and provide services.

  2. Trump recently endorsed House Republicans’ budget proposal that would cut $880 billion from Medicaid to finance tax reductions for wealthy Americans. Earlier in February, he supported sweeping Medicaid cuts to give tax cuts to the rich, despite previously promising not to touch the program.

  3. The Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk has been targeting federal programs with limited transparency about their methods and findings.

Elon Musk has claimed there is $500-700 billion in annual waste and fraud in entitlement programs, but this figure significantly exceeds official estimates:

  1. The Social Security inspector general reported $71.8 billion in improper payments from 2015 through 2022, which is less than 1% of benefits paid during that period.

  2. While the Paragon Institute (a conservative think tank) estimates nearly $1.1 trillion in improper Medicaid payments over the past decade, this figure is disputed and includes many payments that may be administrative errors rather than fraud.

  3. Musk claimed “20 million people who are definitely dead marked as alive in the Social Security database,” but Social Security’s acting commissioner clarified that “these individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits”. A 2023 audit found that while 18.9 million people were listed as being 100+ years old, 18.4 million had not received payments for 50+ years and only 44,000 were actively receiving benefits.

The administration’s focus on fraud could serve as justification for significant program changes:

  1. The Paragon Institute recommends more frequent eligibility reviews (every six months) for Medicaid recipients, which could result in eligible beneficiaries losing coverage due to administrative barriers.

  2. Cutting the Social Security Administration’s staff by half would likely result in longer processing times, more errors, and reduced services for beneficiaries.

  3. The proposed Medicaid cuts would significantly reduce healthcare access for low-income Americans, regardless of whether they’re framed as “fraud reduction.”

While eliminating genuine fraud is a worthwhile goal, the administration’s claims about the scale of fraud appear exaggerated, and their proposed solutions could result in substantial benefit reductions for eligible recipients. The focus on fraud may be a political strategy to justify cuts to programs that serve vulnerable populations while maintaining plausible deniability about “cutting benefits.”

Ultimately, the impact of these policies will be determined by their implementation rather than the rhetoric surrounding them.

The Trump Administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits. President Trump himself has said it (over and over and over again).

Elon Musk didn’t say that, either. The press is lying again.

Here is Musk’s direct quote: “The waste and fraud in entitlement spending — which is most of the federal spending is entitlements — so, that’s, like, the big one to eliminate. That’s the, sort of half-trillion, maybe $6-700 billion a year.”

And he’s exactly right.

  • FACT: The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates taxpayers lose as much as $521 billion annually to fraud — and most of that is within entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid.
  • FACT: Over the past two decades, the federal government has made an estimated $2.7 trillion in “improper payments” — the majority of which come in the form of “payments to deceased individuals or those who no longer [are] eligible for government programs.”
  • FACT: The Social Security Administration made an estimated $72 billion in improper payments between 2015 and 2022.
  • FACT: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimated it made $140+ billion in improper payments in 2024 alone.

What kind of a person doesn’t support eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending that ultimately costs taxpayers more?