John,

Donald Trump just threatened to hold your earned benefits hostage.

With a propaganda piece on WhiteHouse.gov1

There is no legal requirement for this. The vast majority of Social Security Administration employees are still at work (without pay!) making sure checks go out in full and on time, despite the shutdown, and despite the previous mass layoffs at SSA. These workers are holding the system together with paperclips and chewing gum―and now they’re doing it without pay.

In fact, Trump was singing a different tune yesterday when he was fantasizing about withholding benefits. He told reporters:²

“Because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways, including benefits. We can cut large numbers of people.”

Let’s be clear about what’s happening: Trump is threatening Social Security to shift blame for his own attacks on Social Security to Democrats.

We have to make sure it won’t work.

The Trump administration has already sent a message to all U.S. military veterans to blame Democrats for reduced services, even though Republicans control every branch of government.³ Next up, look for the Trump administration to spam the Social Security Administration's email list with political propaganda. They’ve done it before.

Don't believe their lies. Donald Trump’s administration has spent this year dismantling the Social Security Administration, going so far as to let DOGE goons put all of our private data on an insecure server to be strip-mined by Elon Musk’s AI. They are the ones who are ending Social Security’s paper checks for the people who need them. They cut $1 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid. And now they’re making the workers who keep Social Security running work without pay.

We’re fighting back. This is a messaging war, and the White House has a gigantic megaphone. But we know how to reach seniors, and we have built trust with those communities. Pitch in $7 to fight the White House’s Social Security lies!

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Thank you,

Alex Lawson
Social Security Works

¹ https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/10/democrats-betray-americans-with-government-shutdown/
² https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/30/government-shutdown-senate/
³ https://bsky.app/profile/brandonfriedman.bsky.social/post/3m25tolj7nk2f