Trump promised working class Americans he wouldn’t make cuts to Social Security benefits or make decisions that would diminish services, and now, less than six months into his term, the Washington Post is reporting that the Trump Administration is quietly concealing just how dysfunctional the Social Security Administration (SSA) system has become under its watch.
With call centers overwhelmed, wait times soaring, and in-person access shrinking, the administration has made it harder than ever for seniors, disabled Americans, and other vulnerable beneficiaries to access the benefits they’ve earned. Now, they’ve taken the next step to hide their failures by removing key public data that once made these failures visible.
According to the Washington Post, earlier this month, the Social Security Administration removed online dashboards that tracked vital live performance metrics:
- How long it is taking a caller to get through to a SSA staff member on the phone.
- How long claims are taking to process.
- How long beneficiaries currently have to wait for callbacks or in-person appointments.
The situation at the SSA has worsened under the Trump administration, but instead of fixing the system, they’ve decided to bury the evidence. In place of the live data, the SSA now offers a stripped-down dashboard highlighting its online portal, despite many older and disabled Americans’ preference for in-person meetings at SSA offices across the country.
Under the Trump administration’s agenda to gut the federal government, the SSA has lost more than 10% of its workforce. Field offices are overwhelmed, phone lines are jammed, and processing backlogs are growing:
- Average hold times for phone calls were reportedly exceeding 90 minutes.
- Appointments at local SSA offices take over a month to secure in many parts of the country.
“The Trump administration knows exactly what they’ve done to Social Security, and they’re hoping Americans won’t notice. The problems at SSA aren’t isolated glitches; they’re the direct result of Trump’s decisions to cut staff, reduce oversight, and make frontline services more difficult to access,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Brandon Weathersby. “Trump made the system slower, more confusing, and less accessible, and now he’s covering his tracks. However, you can’t hide these failures from Americans who can’t afford the delays and mismanagement all too common under Trump. At stake is more than a spreadsheet. It’s the basic promise that Social Security will be there when Americans need it.”
Published: Jun 24, 2025