Chaotic change has been upending every federal agency since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, and Social Security — despite its longstanding status as the untouchable “third rail” of American politics — is no exception.

Trump pledged while campaigning that he would not seek to cut benefits to eligible recipients, and the White House reiterated that in a March 11 press release, saying: “The Trump Administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits.” And so far, it has held to the pledge to leave benefit levels untouched.

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But in the opening weeks of the administration, rules changes and staff cutbacks have already been announced that could affect service levels, particularly to some of the program’s most vulnerable applicants and beneficiaries. This comes as a record-setting cohort of Americans is hitting traditional retirement age, a four-year bubble of late baby boomers that has come to be known as “peak 65.”

Meanwhile, rhetoric from within the administration has escalated. Billionaire Elon Musk, a “special government employee” put in charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” in a Feb. 28 podcast interview. Trump himself, in his recent address to Congress, claimed his administration is finding “shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud” in Social Security.

Social Security is the single biggest line item in the national budget. In 2024, $1.5 trillion was spent on the program. In September 2024, 51.5 million retired workers received benefits averaging $1,922. But the program serves more than the retired. Also in September 2024, recipients included:

2.6 million spouses and children of retired workers
5.8 surviving children and spouses of deceased workers
8.4 million disabled workers and eligible dependents

According to AARP, 40% of older Americans rely on Social Security for more than half of their family income, and 14% of them rely on the program for 90% or more of their income.

Dire warnings about the future of Social Security have been increasing, and Martin O’Malley — the SSA’s commissioner until last November — told MSNBC this week that the current administration’s actions could lead to “system collapse.” Here are five things to watch as the new administration seeks to trim the cost of the Social Security program.

Staff cutbacks

When Trump took office, the Social Security Administration (SSA) had 57,000 employees. On Feb. 28, SSA announced that it aimed to reduce headcount to 50,000. Even before the cuts, Social Security is at a 50-year staffing low — at a time when the ranks of the retired are growing at a record pace, and people are generally living longer.

FILE – A Social Security card is displayed Oct. 12, 2021, in Tigard, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

For comparison, in 1995 there were 62,504 SSA employees and 43.4 million beneficiaries, according to SSA data. That’s a ratio of about 694 beneficiaries per employee. If we apply 2024’s beneficiary count of 68.5 million to the SSA’s new staff target of 50,000, the ratio almost doubles to 1,369 to 1.

Of course, the internet has come of age since 1995, and many functions can be performed online, including address and phone number changes, accessing a benefit verification letter and starting or changing direct deposit. Not all seniors have internet access, however: The Pew Research Center estimates that 10% of Americans 65 or older are not internet users. Overall, millions of beneficiaries still rely on one-on-one help, especially with more complex questions. Average processing time for disability claims have already doubled in the past five years, according to AARP, from four to eight months.

Phone service changes

Lee Dudek, Trump’s acting commissioner of Social Security, has enacted two significant process changes that the SSA says are intended to combat fraud and identity theft, but are also likely to complicate matters for many new applicants and current beneficiaries, particularly those with limited mobility.

On March 12, SSA announced that it would no longer process changes to direct deposit by phone, saying, “Approximately 40 percent of Social Security direct deposit fraud is associated with someone calling SSA to change direct deposit bank information.” Changes must now be made online (with two-factor authentication) or at a local Social Security office.
On March 18, SSA announced it is taking steps to implement “stronger identity verification procedures,” called “internet ID proofing” in an internal memo from Doris Diaz, acting deputy commissioner for operations for SSA. Under the change, those trying to apply for retirement or disability benefits would be required to first verify their identities online; those who are unable to do so would be required to visit a field office.

In her memo, first reported March 17 by the newsletter popular.info, Diaz estimated the latter changes would result in “approximately 75,000-85,000 additional visitors per week” to field offices, and present “increased challenges for vulnerable populations.” At the same time, according to the memo, it would result in “reduced fraud risk and fewer improper payments.”

Field office congestion

One significant change to Social Security policy took place in December, before Trump took office: requiring appointments rather than drop-in visits at field offices in an effort to reduce wait times. A December blog post from SSA said drop-in visits would still be accommodated, but most language on the SSA site indicates that offices are “requiring appointments for in-person service.”

To get an in-person appointment, one must call the main Social Security line (1-800-772-1213) — and phone hold times are typically two hours or more. Available appointment dates are typically a month or more out, according to online sources. And that’s before the aforementioned phone policy changes take effect.

There are also conflicting reports from within the Trump administration about the potential closure of public-facing offices. The Associated Press has combed through the list of canceled government leases listed on the DOGE site and identified 47 SSA offices slated for closure, 24 of them this year.

When contacted, the SSA press office provided a list of 64 “soft leases” slated for cancellation. Some are not public-facing offices. Of those that are, all are listed as small “permanent remote sites” reserved for hearings. Most hearings, SSA says, are now done remotely and the hearing rooms (typically housed within field offices) are no longer needed.

The lists provided through DOGE and the SSA overlap but are not identical. There are today “about 1,200 field offices,” according to the SSA press office.

Changes to overpayment policy

Sometimes, Social Security mistakenly overpays recipients, and the agency is required by law to recover any overpaid funds. To do so, once an overpayment has been identified, SSA has historically withheld 100% of future benefit checks until the overpaid amount has been recovered — meaning that beneficiaries could see all of a monthly check dissipate.

President Joe Biden changed that recovery rate to 10%, so that overpayments would be clawed back over time. Under Dudek, the 100% recovery is back in effect as of March 27. The SSA says it will work to accommodate those for whom the accelerated repayment presents a hardship, but the beneficiary would have to call or visit an office to make their case.

A 2024 report from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General estimated that $72 billion in “improper payments” were made in fiscal years 2015 through 2022, representing less than 1% of all benefits paid in that period. The SSA estimates the policy change will help them recover an additional $7 billion per year.

The program’s long-term viability

Social Security’s shaky long-term funding status is not a problem created by Trump, but one of his policy proposals could exacerbate it. Social Security is a program in which current workers pay a designated payroll tax to underwrite benefits to current retirees. Because of our aging population, however, there is a growing imbalance between the number of workers and the number of retirees. The ratio of covered workers to current beneficiaries has fallen by almost half since 1960.

Since 2010, the money coming into Social Security via payroll taxes has fallen short of the money going out to pay benefits. In 2023, the shortfall was $41 billion, and that was paid out via two trust funds that were established in 1940 and 1957 respectively — back when workers greatly numbered retirees. Those trust funds are projected to run dry in 2035 unless changes are made to shore up the system. If the trust funds run out, Social Security would be able to pay only about 83% of scheduled benefits.

Material steps to fix the funding gap could include increasing the retirement age, raising the payroll tax, or eliminating the cap on Social Security payroll taxes paid in a year. Full retirement age was gradually raised from 65 to the current 67 — by an act passed by Congress in 1983. No such proposals are on the table from the current administration.

However, Trump pledged in his campaign and again in his recent speech to Congress that he would eliminate income taxes on Social Security benefits. About half of recipients do currently pay taxes on a portion of their benefits, and they would see their overall tax bill lowered if Trump succeeds. The move would serve to worsen systemic issues, though, because those tax proceeds (which totaled $51 billion in 2023) are plowed back into paying benefits.

The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania estimated in a February report that eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits would shave two years from the life of the trust funds, moving its own estimate of the projected depletion date from December 2034 to December 2032, and would increase federal debt by 7% by 2054.

The article Social Security Under Trump: 5 Warning Signs originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By OMAR ALBAM and KAREEM CHEHAYEB

KOAYIAH, Syria (AP) — An Israeli strike Tuesday in southwestern Syria killed at least six people as Israeli troops occupying the area clashed with local residents, Syria’s Foreign Ministry and a war monitor reported.

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Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said troops fired back at gunmen who attacked them, before launching a drone attack.

The Syrian ministry said the six killed were civilians.

Syrian state-run news agency SANA said that several people were wounded, including a woman. The report said Israeli tanks in the southwestern village of Koayiah also fired several rounds. Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at seven.

“We also call on the Syrian people to hold on to their land and reject any attempts at displacement or the imposition of a new reality by force, stressing that these attacks will not deter Syrians from defending their rights and their land,” the Foreign Ministry’s statement read, accusing Israel of “flagrant violation of national sovereignty and international laws.”

The observatory and a town resident told The Associated Press that clashes had erupted between Israeli troops and residents after Israeli forces tried to enter the village and were confronted by armed civilians. Residents of the village fled the shelling and took refuge in neighboring villages and olive groves.

Israel seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone inside Syria after Islamist insurgents toppled President Bashar Assad and seized power in December, with Israeli officials saying they will thwart any threats. Israeli officials have also said that they will not allow the new Syrian military south of Damascus, claiming that they aim to protect the Druze, a minority sect present in both Syria and Israel.

Syria’s new authorities and U.N. officials have said Israel is violating the 1974 agreement that set up the buffer zone along the border and called for its withdrawal.

Elsewhere, the spokesperson of an investigative committee tasked with probing days of clashes and revenge attacks in Syria’s coastal region that killed hundreds of civilians said they had listened to almost 100 testimonies and received dozens of written and recorded civilian and military statements.

“There are areas where the events took place that are dangerous, and some witnesses and residents are afraid to communicate with the committee,” Yasser al-Farhan said at a news conference. He declined to elaborate on the committee’s findings so far.

The clashes erupted after pro-Assad loyalists attacked a security patrol in the coastal city of Lattakia, leading to revenge killings that broadly targeted Assad’s minority Alawite community.

The two-day violence was a major setback in Damascus’ efforts to improve its image and convince Europe and the United States to lift economic sanctions after over a decade of conflict.

SANA also said Tuesday that two internet cables were cut in an act of sabotage, cutting online access across much of the country for 12 hours.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut.

After a twitching pinky finger led to a diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson’s disease, Keith Krehbiel, then 42, stopped at a bookstore on the way home to learn more about the progressive neurological disorder before telling his wife Amy the shocking news.

“I remember sitting in a parking lot and hearing this sad piece by Miles Davis,” he said. “I haven’t been able to listen to it since without feeling what I felt then.”

Twenty-eight years later, as a political science professor emeritus at Stanford, Krehbiel just became the first person in the U.S. to receive adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS) therapy as a part of regular care. It had previously been available only on an experimental basis.

The therapy is akin to a pacemaker for the brain, counteracting beta waves and other arrhythmias relating to the immobility, stiffness and trembling associated with Parkinson’s. The device functions in a closed loop within the body, responding in real-time to feedback from the brain while documenting these interactions.

Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart shows a Medtronic neurostimulator, the device implant that delivers adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS) with electrical signals that adapt in response to the Parkinson’s symptom-causing beta waves of the patient’s brain. Stanford Neuroscience Health Center, March 3, 2025, Stanford, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

None of this was possible until Stanford researchers developed it in 2015 by implanting the first-generation sensing neurostimulators. Now, the personalized treatment is poised to touch millions of lives.

Parkinson’s disease diagnoses have doubled since the 1990s, affecting 10 million people around the world, including “Back to the Future” icon Michael J. Fox and science communication advocate Alan Alda of M*A*S*H fame.

A study published this month predicts that 25 million people worldwide will be living with the disease by 2050. The U.S., where a million people have the disease, reports 90,000 new diagnoses each year.

The emerging aDBS therapy is a quantum leap from earlier treatments, approved by the FDA in 1997, the same year Krehbiel was diagnosed. In both, currents from a battery-powered neurostimulator in the chest are sent to two electrodes in the brain via wires extending up the neck, behind the ear, and into the head.

Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart developed adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS) as a more responsive and refined treatment for the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease – the FDA approved aDBS for the market on Feb. 24, 2025. Photographed at the Stanford Neuroscience Health Center on March, 3, 2025 in Stanford, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart, the Stanford neurologist whose research contributed to the development of the new therapy said older versions were “basically blind and deaf to the brain’s own rhythms.”

The over quarter-century-long road to aDBS began when Bronte-Stewart was growing up in the U.K., training to be a ballerina. When she chose science, her fascination with movement brought her to lead Stanford’s movement disorders center in 1999.

Her work gravitated toward Parkinson’s because of how kinetically complex and common the disease is — second only to Alzheimer’s in prevalence among degenerative neurological conditions and fastest-growing globally.

In 2011, Medtronic, a medical device company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, sought programming for their new sensing neurostimulator. They had the platform, Stanford had the technology and Bronte-Stewart had the science.

By 2018, projects across the U.S., Canada and Europe catalyzed an international multi-center pivotal trial for market approval of aDBS.

“This was fairly radical,” said Bronte-Stewart, whose team went from applying aDBS for 20 minutes at a time in the lab to sending subjects home with it.

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In 2020, Krehbiel was originally scheduled for the earlier treatment, cDBS but qualified for experimental aDBS after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed his implantation.

Neurosurgeons drilled two holes into his skull while Krehbiel was fully conscious — a “creepy” experience despite the absence of pain. After a night at home with bandages securing the “manhole covers” in his head, he returned to the hospital, went under general anesthesia, woke up while doctors fit electrodes into his brain, and slept again.

Minus a slight headache when he awoke, Krehbiel felt better even before the system was on.

“My tongue felt like it had helium in it — it levitated to the top of my mouth,” he said, of the “tweaking” process that acquainted aDBS to his unique biology.

Krehbiel gradually went from six or seven pills of dopamine agonists a day to one, freed from the “awful” side effects of the drugs commonly prescribed for Parkinson’s.

Krehbiel’s disease continues to progress, in the forms of vocal deterioration, fainting spells and falls, but life is better, he said.

“It’s definitely a game changer but it’s not a cure,” he said.

John Lipp shows the neurostimulator implanted in his chest on Feb. 28, 2025. The slimeline device and battery in one is connected to electrodes surgically positioned in his brain by wires extending down behind his ear and down his neck. He said he cannot feel the presence of the wires. Photographed at Friends of Alameda Animal Shelter, in Alameda, Calif., on Feb. 28, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Across the Bay, on Alameda island on a recent Friday afternoon, John Lipp, another Stanford research subject, unbuttoned the pink sateen shirt under his blue blazer. Standing in the open doorway to the dog kennels of Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter where he is the CEO, he asked his colleague to cue up a “stripper song” — “You Gotta Have A Gimmick” from the musical “Gypsy.”

He flashed a red line on his chest, where surgeons slid a fresh neurostimulator under his skin in an outpatient procedure in December. Soon, he won’t have to go under the knife to recharge the device.

Lipp learned he had Parkinson’s in 2015. He was 49. A harbinger had been when he was on his way to meet friends and his hand clenched into a fist. “I literally stopped in the middle of the street and talked to myself: ‘Hey, relax.’”

After diagnosis, Lipp ran his first marathon at Disneyland in 2016 but soon had to stop running because of severe muscle cramping.

In 2019, his care team told him about a study in which he could receive cutting-edge treatment while advancing medicine.

He went into surgery ready, panicking only when he realized his head was locked to the operating table. Establishing care afterward was rocky. When he worried about travel plans with his husband, researchers told him he could quit the trial. But, he thought, I’ve come this far.

The aDBS treatment banished Lipp’s cramping and helped him shed most medications. Last November, he completed the 2024 New York City Marathon.

“Even if the DBS is working, the Parkinson’s is progressing, even hour by hour,” Lipp said. Anxiety, insomnia, stress and a gait that’s slightly off remain part of his reality. He can no longer open his eyes in the morning without prying them open manually.

Lipp is retiring this June, in part, to focus on his health and advocate for the Parkinson’s community.

John Lipp, another research subject in the development of adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS), says the treatment bought him four more years working as the CEO at Friends of Alameda Animal Shelter (FAAS) in Alameda, Calif. Photographed at the shelter on Feb. 28, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

“One thing I’ve learned about this disease – any disease – is that it doesn’t change your nature. If you’re an optimistic person before your diagnosis, you’re going to be after it,” he said.

Brian Fiske, chief scientist at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which funded some of Bronte-Stewart’s early aDBS research, said no approved treatment exists to slow Parkinson’s. “But we see these advances in symptom management to be just as critical,” he added.

An international registry will follow participating aDBS patients to inform further advancements. The pre-existing treatment is still in use in some patients — its steady signal is still optimal for some, especially if their neural signals are too weak for aDBS responses.

Bronte-Stewart expressed gratitude for supporters of research, and human subjects who spend years in trials with no guarantee of benefit. She wants the new treatment to reach everyone who needs it.

“Only 2% of doctors become neurologists, and yet, neurological diseases are increasing exponentially. So you can immediately see there’s a supply and demand problem,” she said.

If Bronte-Stewart ever finds free time, she dances — keeps it moving.

“This is just the beginning,” she said.

By DAVID KLEPPER and AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday downplayed the texting of sensitive plans for a military strike against Yemen’s Houthis this month to a group chat that included a journalist, saying it was “the only glitch in two months” of his administration as Democratic lawmakers heaped criticism on the administration for handling highly sensitive information carelessly.

Trump told NBC News that the lapse “turned out not to be a serious one,” and articulated his continued support for national security adviser Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the chain that included 18 senior administration officials discussing planning for the strike.

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said in the NBC interview. The president also appeared to point blame on an unnamed Waltz aide for Goldberg being added to the chain. “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”

But the use of messaging app Signal to discuss a sensitive operation has opened the administration to blistering criticism from Democratic lawmakers who expressed outrage at the White House’s and senior administration officials’ insistence that no classified information was shared. Senior administration officials have struggled to explain why the publicly available app was used to discuss such a delicate matter.

One Democrat calls the mistake ‘an embarrassment’

One official on the Signal chain, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, acknowledged during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday that she was traveling overseas during the exchange. She wouldn’t say whether she was using her personal or government-issued phone because the matter is under review by the White House National Security Council.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, center, is flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, as the Senate Intelligence Committee holds its worldwide threats hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Both Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who also was a participant in the Signal exchange and also testified at Tuesday’s intelligence hearing, faced blistering criticism from lawmakers.

“This is an embarrassment,” said Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat. “This is utterly unprofessional. There’s been no apology. There’s been no recognition of the gravity of this error.”

In the run-up to his 2016 election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump urged criminal prosecution of the former secretary of state for communicating about classified information with her aides on a private email server she set up. The matter was investigated, but the FBI ultimately recommended against charges. None were brought.

Clinton was among Democrats this week to criticize Trump administration officials’ use of Signal.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Clinton said in an X post that spotlighted The Atlantic article and included an eyes emoji.

Trump also faced charges for mishandling classified information at his Mar-a-Lago resort following his first White House term. Those charges were later dismissed.

Administration says Democrats shouldn’t be outraged

But on Tuesday, top administration officials were insistent the Democratic outrage about the matter was misplaced.

On Capitol Hill, Ratcliffe and Gabbard told lawmakers that no classified information was included in the texts about U.S. attack plans in the message chain.

From left, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse, appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for a hearing on worldwide threats, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Democrats pushed back, saying the leaked military plans show a sloppy disregard for security, but Ratcliffe insisted no rules were violated.

“My communications to be clear in the Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information,” Ratcliffe told lawmakers in the hearing that was supposed to be focused on global security threats.

Facing heated questions from Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, Gabbard said there’s a difference between “inadvertent” releases of information and intentional leaks. “There was no classified material that was shared,” Gabbard said.

Warner, though, said the lapse in security could have cost lives.

“If this information had gotten out, American lives could have been lost. If the Houthis had this information they could reposition their defensive systems,” Warner said.

In response to questions from Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Gabbard and Ratcliffe said they would participate in an audit looking into administration officials’ use of Signal. Wyden said the matter must be investigated.

“I’m of the view that there ought to be resignations,” Wyden said.

FBI Director Kash Patel, appearing with Ratcliffe and Gabbard at the hearing, said he was only recently briefed on the Signal chat matter and doesn’t have an update on whether the FBI has opened an investigation into it. Warner asked for an update by the end of the day.

The White House in a statement Tuesday called the uproar a “coordinated effort to distract from the successful actions taken by President Trump and his administration to make America’s enemies pay and keep Americans safe.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in his first comments on the matter on Monday, attacked the journalist who received the messages, Goldberg, as “deceitful” and a “discredited so-called journalist” while alluding to previous critical reporting of Trump from the publication.

“Nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said in an exchange with reporters on Monday.

Examining the security of Signal

Signal is an app that can be used for direct messaging and group chats as well as phone and video calls. It uses end-to-end encryption for its messaging and calling services that prevents any third party from viewing conversation content or listening in on calls.

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In other words, messages and calls sent on Signal are scrambled; only the sender and recipient at each end will have the key to decipher them.

Signal’s encryption protocol is open source, meaning that it’s freely available for anyone to inspect, use or modify. The encryption protocol is also used by another popular chat service, social media company Meta’s WhatsApp platform.

Government officials have used Signal for organizational correspondence, such as scheduling sensitive meetings. But in the Biden administration, people who had permission to download it on their White House-issued phones were instructed to use the app sparingly, according to a former national security official who served in the administration.

The official, who requested anonymity to speak about methods used to share sensitive information, said Signal was most commonly used to notify someone that they should check for a classified message sent through other means.

The use of Signal became more prevalent during the last year of the Biden administration after federal law enforcement officials warned that China and Iran were hacking the White House as well as officials in the first Trump administration, according to the official.

Sen. Angus King, a Maine Independent, questioned Ratcliffe and Gabbard over their assertion that no classified information was included in the chat.

“It’s hard for me to believe that targets and timing and weapons would not have been classified,” he said.

AP writer Kelvin Chan in London contributed reporting.