Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos
WATCH: Trump falsely claims Social Security rife with fraud, including millions of people over 100
Posted
March 5, 2025
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March 5, 2025
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3:39Now PlayingPresident Donald Trump promised to eliminate Social Security fraud and waste during his March 4 address to a joint session of Congress, falsely claiming that tens of millions of people over 100 years old were receiving checks.
Trump said his administration was working hard to stop these Social Security payments.
Last month, acting Social Security commissioner Lee Dudek noted that the reported data involving seniors older than 100 "are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits.”
“We're also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors,” Trump said.
A report from the Social Security inspector general, for example, found that the agency sent out around $8.6 trillion in benefits from fiscal years 2015 to 2022. Of that amount, fewer than 1 percent, or $71.8 billion, were improper payments.
The first speech of Trump’s second term in office, while not officially a State of the Union address, is a chance for the president to lay out legislative priorities and tout early achievements.
Trump has moved to deliver on some of his campaign promises at breakneck speed, signing more than 75 executive orders in little more than a month. Thousands of federal workers have been fired at the direction of the Department of Government Efficiency and Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk.
Close to half of Americans in the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll disapprove of Trump’s job performance so far, but his approval rating, at 45 percent, is higher than at any point of his first term. While 54 percent of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction, 45 percent believe the country is on the right track, a 10-point jump from December 2024.
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