‘Let’s say social security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain,’ Lutnick said. ‘Whoever screams is the one stealing.’
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WASHINGTON – Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested this week that only “fraudsters” would complain about missing a Social Security check – but honest people like his mother would simply live with the fact that the government didn’t mail their monthly payment.
“Let’s say social security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain,” Lutnick said during an appearance on the “All-In” podcast. “She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”
Lutnick said people familiar with payments like Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk, who co-founded Pay-Pal, know the “easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen.”
He added: “Whoever screams is the one stealing . . . Come on, your mother, 80-year-olds, 90-year-olds, they trust the government.”
More than 70 million Americans receive Social Security checks, including most people over age 65, people with permanent disabilities and survivors of deceased workers. The program, which was started by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the Great Depression, uses funds from workers’ paychecks to pay beneficiaries a monthly sum. Many of the program’s recipients depend on the checks as their sole source of income.
“We don’t have to take one penny from someone who deserves Social Security, not one penny for someone who deserves Medicaid, Medicare,” Lutnick said. “What we have to do is stop sending money to someone who’s not hurt, who’s on disability for 50 years. It’s ridiculous.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the Trump administration plans to stop Social Security payments. On its web site, it says “President Trump Will Always Protect Social Security, Medicare.”
“The Trump Administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits. President Trump himself has said it (over and over and over again),” the White House says on the site.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., blasted Lutnick as an out of touch billionaire Friday night for his comments and defended Americans who rely on the government program.
“Secretary Lutnick: You are a billionaire,” Sanders said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Maybe your mother-in-law wouldn’t complain if she didn’t get her Social Security check, but tens of millions of seniors struggling to survive would. They’re not fraudsters. They earned it. How out of touch are you not to realize that?”
Lutnick is estimated to have a net worth exceeding $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. He served for years as CEO of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
Musk, who has been leading the Trump administration’s efforts to slash government spending and dismantle the federal bureaucracy, earlier this month called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” during an interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
His comments at the time sparked concern that he would dismantle government safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The Trump administration has since announced changes to Social Security that require beneficiaries to apply for the program online or in person, rather than by phone.