By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.

Over the past few days, President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk have said on social media and in press briefings that people who are 100, 200 and even 300 years old are improperly getting benefits — a “HUGE problem,” Musk wrote, as his Department of Government Efficiency digs into federal agencies to root out waste, fraud and abuse.

It is true that improper payments have been made, including some to dead people. But the numbers thrown out by Musk and the White House are overstated and misrepresent Social Security data.

Here are the facts:

What has the Trump administration said about payments to centenarians?

On Tuesday, Trump said at a press briefing in Florida that “we have millions and millions of people over 100 years old” receiving Social Security benefits. “They’re obviously fraudulent or incompetent,” Trump said.

“If you take all of those millions of people off Social Security, all of a sudden we have a very powerful Social Security with people that are 80 and 70 and 90, but not 200 years old,” he said. He also said that there’s one person in the system listed as 360 years old.

Late Monday, Musk posted a slew of posts on his social media platform X, including: “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” and “Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as “ALIVE” when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem. Obviously. Some of these people would have been alive before America existed as a country. Think about that for a second …”

How big of a problem is Social Security fraud?

A July 2024 report from Social Security’s inspector general states that from fiscal years 2015 through 2022, the agency paid out almost $8.6 trillion in benefits, including $71.8 billion — or less than 1% — in improper payments. Most of the erroneous payments were overpayments to living people.

Related Articles

Trump administration halts support for representing unaccompanied children in immigration court

Senate confirms Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary, a key role for Trump’s trade agenda

US Catholic bishops sue Trump administration for halt in funding for refugee settlement

Layoffs hit many at CDC lab program that was started to address previous failures

As egg prices soar, Trump administration plans new strategy to fight bird flu

In addition, in early January, the U.S. Treasury clawed back more than $31 million in a variety of federal payments— not just Social Security payments— that improperly went to dead people, a recovery that former Treasury official David Lebryk said was “just the tip of the iceberg.”

The money was reclaimed as part of a five-month pilot program after Congress gave the Department of Treasury temporary access to the Social Security Administration’s “Full Death Master File” for three years as part of the omnibus appropriations bill in 2021. The SSA maintains the most complete federal database of individuals who have died, and the file contains more than 142 million records, which go back to 1899, according to the Treasury.

Treasury estimated in January that it would recover more than $215 million during its three-year access period, which runs from December 2023 through 2026.

So are tens of millions of people over 100 years old receiving benefits?

No.

Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system based on the COBOL programming language, which has a lack of date type. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago. The news organization WIRED first reported on the use of COBOL programming language at the Social Security Administration.

Additionally, a series of reports from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the agency has not established a new system to properly annotate death information in its database, which included roughly 18.9 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 or earlier but were not marked as deceased. This does not mean, however, that these individuals were receiving benefits.

The agency decided not to update the database because of the cost to do so, which would run upward of $9 million.

A July 2023 Social Security OIG report states that “almost none of the numberholders discussed in the report currently receive SSA payments.” And, as of September 2015, the agency automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years old.

What are some of the concerns about misinformation on Social Security payments?

Chuck Blahous, a senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, said, “Two cheers for Elon Musk if he can root out and put a stop to improper payments.”

But to pick the places in the federal government where error rates are high, “Social Security would be near the bottom of the list, not near the top,” Blahous said. “Medicaid improper payment rates are quite substantial, and soared after the Medicaid expansion of the ACA.”

“By all means — go after any improper payments that are found, but let’s not pretend that’s where the system’s biggest financial problems are,” he said.

Sita Nataraj Slavov, a professor of public policy at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, said the claims by Musk and Trump will make people think the solutions to the government’s financial problems are simpler than they appear.

“The real concern is that this claim may mislead people into thinking there’s an easy fix to Social Security’s financial problems — that we can somehow restore solvency without making sacrifices through higher taxes or lower benefits,” Slavov said. “This is simply not true.”

What does the White House say about the criticism?

Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, referred back to the Social Security’s inspector general report.

“A previous investigation revealed the SSA paid at least $71.8 billion in improper payments,” she said. “The Social Security Administration is now working to find even more waste, fraud, and abuse in the Administration’s whole-of-government effort to protect American taxpayers.”

By ELÉONORE HUGHES and MAURICIO SAVARESE, Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s prosecutor-general on Tuesday formally charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat, in a plot that included a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and kill a Supreme Court judge.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to remain in power. The alleged plot, he wrote, included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president.

“The members of the criminal organization structured a plan at the presidential palace to attack institutions, aiming to bring down the system of the powers and the democratic order, which received the sinister name of ‘Green and Yellow Dagger,’” Gonet wrote in a 272-page indictment. “The plan was conceived and taken to the knowledge of the president, and he agreed to it.”

In November, Brazil’s Federal Police filed a 884-page report with Gonet detailing the scheme. They allege a systematic effort to sow distrust in the electoral system, drafting a decree to provide legal cover for the plot, pressuring top military brass to go along with the plan and inciting a riot in the capital.

Related Articles

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince wins points for hosting the Russia-US summit on Ukraine

As Israel uses US-made AI models in war, concerns arise about tech’s role in who lives and who dies

Sidelined by Trump, Macron tries to rally Europe on Ukraine. But divisions run deep

Questions emerge about what may have caused Delta plane to burst into flames and flip over

Hamas says it will free 6 living hostages and hand over 4 bodies, accelerating Gaza releases

The Supreme Court will analyze the charges and, if accepted, Bolsonaro will stand trial.

The far-right leader denies wrongdoing. “I have no concerns about the accusations, zero,” Bolsonaro told journalists earlier on Tuesday during a visit to the Senate in Brasilia.

“Have you seen the coup decree, by any chance? You haven’t. Neither have I,” he added.

A lawyer for Bolsonaro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As well as participating in a coup d’état, the 34 defendants are accused of participating in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage qualified by violence and serious threat against the state’s assets, and deterioration of listed heritage, according to a statement from the Prosecutor General’s press office.

Gonet said the criminal organization he charged “had as leaders the (then) president himself and his running mate, Gen. Braga Netto.”

“Both accepted, stimulated, and performed acts that are described in our criminal legislation as attacking the existence and the Independence of (the branches) of power and of the democratic rule,” Gonet wrote in his report.

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

Stacie Stanley will start as St. Paul Public School’s next superintendent on May 12, with a first-year salary of $270,000 following contract approvals by the district’s board Tuesday night.

A short-term contract sets Stanley’s start date at May 12 and goes through June 30. A long-term contract begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2028. She will receive an additional salary of $37,384 during the period of her short-term contract.

Her second-year salary was set at $275,400 and her third-year salary was set at $280,908, according to district officials.

Interim Superintendent John Thein receives a salary of $230,000 a year, according to his employment contract with the district which was approved in April. Thein has been serving as interim superintendent since May after the departure of former superintendent Joe Gothard, who left to lead the school district in Madison, Wis. Thein also served as interim superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools from 2016 to 2017.

Gothard’s base salary as of 2023 was $256,000.

The St. Paul school board unanimously selected Stacie Stanley in December, hiring the Edina superintendent who grew up in St. Paul and attended the city’s schools.

She is the first SPPS superintendent born, raised and educated in St. Paul in the district’s more than 150-year history, Thein said Tuesday.

Stanley has been superintendent of Edina Public Schools since July 2021 and previously served as associate superintendent at Eden Prairie Schools. She is the president-elect of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators. Stanley has held leadership roles in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District, Roseville Area Schools and East Metro Integration District.

Stanley graduated from Central Senior High School.

Before getting into education, Stanley worked in occupational therapy. She then worked as a math teacher. She eventually became director of the office of equity and integration for East Metro Integration District. In her career, she has overseen curriculum assessment instruction and support services and English-learner programs, she said during the virtual meeting.

Stanley has a doctorate in educational leadership from Bethel University and a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in K-8 elementary education from St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

Related Articles

SPPS Board of Education to vote on cell phone policy Tuesday

St. Paul, other big districts cancel Tuesday classes because of cold weather

St. Paul Public Schools cancels school, after-school activities Tuesday due to weather

Confirmed case of pertussis/whooping cough in St. Paul school district

St. Paul Public Schools begins open house tours before priority enrollment deadline

Minnesota Senate Republicans are leaning into their push to force state Sen. Nicole Mitchell from office after the Woodbury Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmaker was hit with another felony charge tied to her alleged break-in at her stepmother’s home last year.

In an ethics complaint filed Tuesday, Senate Republicans argued Mitchell had a conflict of interest when she voted to block a motion that would have opened her to an expulsion vote. They also filed an updated ethics complaint which includes her new charge of felony burglary tools possession, which prosecutors filed on Feb. 10.

Mitchell now faces two felony charges in connection with the April 22 break-in, where prosecutors allege the senator used a crowbar to pry open a basement window of her stepmother’s home in Detroit Lakes.

Mitchell, who pleaded not guilty and is set to go to trial on June 16, told officers she was there to retrieve her father’s ashes and other sentimental items, according to the criminal complaint. The first-term DFL senator has declined to resign even as members of her own party, including Gov. Tim Walz, have called on her to do so.

Efforts to remove Mitchell

Minority Republicans filed an ethics complaint against Mitchell last year based on the initial felony charge and pushed for votes to remove her from office, but so far they haven’t succeeded. It takes a two-thirds majority of the 67-member Senate to remove a member, and while some DFLers have said Mitchell should step down, Republicans need 12 to break rank to reach the 45-vote threshold.

While the DFL has a 34-33 majority, on Jan. 27, the Senate was tied 33-33 between the parties following the death of Minneapolis DFL Sen. Kari Dziedzic the month before.

Republicans pushed to put a removal vote before the Senate when the parties were still tied, but it failed on party lines.

If Mitchell hadn’t participated, Republicans could have prevailed 33-32. At a Tuesday news conference announcing the new and updated complaints, Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, said Mitchell had a “personal and financial interest” in the outcome.

“Sen. Mitchel deliberately and defiantly violated the rules of ethical conduct of the Minnesota Senate,” Drazkowski said. “Our contention is simple, Sen. Mitchell has a conflict of interest in any vote related to her political future.”

Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa. (Courtesy of the Minnesota House of Representatives)

Ethics committee

A Senate ethics committee will have to hear the complaint within a month, but it’s unlikely the new Republican complaints will gain traction.

Last year, the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct deadlocked on the initial complaint against Mitchell on partisan lines. The committee, which must hear complaints within 30 days, has two DFL and two Republican members even with an overall DFL majority in the Senate.

The new complaints will need to be heard soon. Democrats have maintained that Mitchell must have a trial before the Senate can decide to act.

“As I have maintained since April, Senator Mitchell is owed due process. That includes the adjudication of her case in court, and the consideration of ethics in the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said in a statement. “The subcommittee on ethics will continue to play its role in due time.”

Sen. Erin P. Murphy, DFL-St. Paul. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Senate)

Mitchell’s attorney Bruce Ringstrom Jr. said changes to charges against Mitchell shouldn’t warrant a new ethics complaint as they don’t introduce any new evidence in the case.

“Without any actual evidence to support a new ethics complaint, there shouldn’t be another hearing scheduled,” he said in a statement.

Trial delayed

Michell was originally scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 27, but a judge agreed to delay the trial until after the legislative session. Judge Michael D. Fritz sided with Mitchell’s attorneys, who cited state law barring members of the Legislature from being tried for crimes during the session or when they are attending committee business.

Prosecutors argued the seriousness of the alleged offense warranted an exception, but Fritz said the law does not differentiate between levels of charges.

Mitchell, a first-term senator and former broadcast meteorologist who is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, was elected in 2022 and is in the third year of her four-year term. She isn’t scheduled to face election again until 2026.

Related Articles

Trump moves on budget, policy spill over to Minnesota Legislature

SPPS Board of Education to vote on cell phone policy Tuesday

Minnesota GOP files first petitions aimed at unseating DFL House members

Legal sports betting odds in Minnesota murky as ever as bill hits Senate snag

Letters: Who wants to prevent discovery of fraud?