Social Security Is 90 Years Old. Trump Just Weighed In.

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation honoring the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump marked Social Security’s 90th birthday on Thursday afternoon, celebrating his administration’s commitment to the program even as it remains in dire need of a fix.

Trump signed a proclamation in the Oval Office honoring the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act, which President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law on Aug. 14, 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression. Today, the program serves some 67 million Americans, including 55 million ages 65 and older.

The administration touted customer service improvements made under Social Security’s new commissioner Frank Bisignano, the former CEO of payments company Fiserv, even though the agency has shed thousands of jobs and consolidated some offices in a cost-cutting push led by the Department of Government Efficiency.

“By massively improving the customer service experience through technological improvements, preventing illegal aliens from accessing benefits, and delivering no taxes on Social Security through the One Big Beautiful Bill – President Trump has Made Social Security Great Again,” the White House said on Thursday.

Trump also said the administration has kicked “nearly 275,00 illegal aliens off of our Social Security.” Unauthorized workers aren’t eligible for future benefits.

Jon Whiten, deputy director of the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, told Barron’s: “The fact remains that undocumented immigrants help keep Social Security running by paying in tens of billions in taxes each year—despite not being able to access the program.”

Although Trump said he fulfilled his campaign promise of “no tax on Social Security for our seniors,” the Republicans’ megabill stopped short of that. Instead, it provides for an additional deduction of $6,000 for middle- and lower-income taxpayers aged 65 and over from 2025 to 2028.

Since some of the income taxes paid on Social Security benefits flow into the trust fund, this temporary tax break will accelerate Social Security’s insolvency, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The retirement trust fund is expected to run dry in 2033, about nine months earlier than projected last year, according to the Social Security Trustees report released in June.

If Congress doesn’t act by then to fix the program’s finances, recipients will see their benefits automatically cut by 23%. Incoming payroll tax revenue will be sufficient to pay the remaining 77%, the Trustees project. As long as workers continue to pay payroll taxes, Social Security won’t run out of money, but it will run short unless lawmakers act.

There have been a variety of proposals floated to shore up Social Security, including by raising taxes on higher earners and raising the age at which people can claim full benefits, which is a de facto benefit cut. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., Louisiana) has proposed borrowing $1.5 trillion to create a separate investment fund for Social Security that could be invested in stocks, whose profits would bolster the flagging trust fund.

That proposal could be considered a form of privatization. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made headlines in July when he likened the new Trump investment accounts for children as a “backdoor to privatizing Social Security.”

Those remarks received pushback from advocates. “Unlike private savings, Social Security is a guaranteed earned benefit that you can’t outlive,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, at the time. “The American people have a message for Trump and Bessent: Keep Wall Street’s hands off our Social Security!”

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later said that the Trump accounts would “supplement, not substitute,” Social Security, and reiterated Trump’s commitment to protecting the program.

Write to Elizabeth O’Brien at elizabeth.obrien@barrons.com