Trump Admin Threatens to Stop Social Security If DOGE Can’t Have Data

Donald Trump’s interim Social Security chief suggested Thursday night he will effectively turn off the agency that manages the essential safety net program for seniors and the disabled, if Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can’t access the non-anonymized sensitive personal information and data of hundreds of millions of Americans, based on a judge’s order.

“My anti-fraud team would be DOGE affiliates. My IT staff would be DOGE affiliates,” said Lee Dudek, acting Social Security Administration (SSA) commissioner, arguing the order was too broad, according to Bloomberg News. “As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems,” he said, adding: “Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency.”

Dudek’s threat to block SSA employees from using the agency’s IT systems — a move that could halt Social Security payments — came in response to a judge’s temporary restraining order in a case brought by the AFL-CIO labor union. The order bars Social Security Administration officials from allowing DOGE, including Musk, and the SSA’s DOGE team to access personally identifiable information. It also directs Musk and DOGE to delete from their possession all non-anonymized personal data, and bars them from having access to SSA computers or code. 

Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander wrote that the SSA had likely violated administrative and privacy laws when it gave DOGE “unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers’ license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses.” 

She added that the “defendants, with so-called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government.”

Hollander’s order does allow the SSA to grant DOGE members “access to redacted or anonymized data and records” if they receive standard training for employees who generally work with Social Security data systems, to ensure they understand applicable federal laws, regulations, and policies that protect the privacy of personally identifiable information.

In other words, Musk and DOGE must comply with existing privacy laws. According to Dudek, Trump’s acting commissioner for the Social Security Administration, this requirement is a reason to threaten to halt the safety net program that 71 million Americans rely on for support.

Dudek’s comments come as DOGE moves to close dozens of SSA offices, potentially limit phone services, and demand that beneficiaries travel to visit offices in-person to verify their identities — changes that stand to overwhelm the system and prevent seniors and the disabled from receiving their checks. 

Musk, the world’s richest man, has described Social Security, with zero basis, as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” He has falsely suggested that millions of dead people could be receiving Social Security payments. The Tesla CEO recently said he hopes to cut $700 billion in fraud a year, far more than experts believe exists, from entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. 

According to the Trump administration, Musk and DOGE must have access to everyone’s most personal data — or you, your parents, or your grandparents can’t have Social Security.