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Trump White House takes 100-day victory lap on reforming key agency amid fierce pushback
FIRST ON FOX: As President Trump marks his first 100 days in office on Tuesday, the administration is touting all of their fulfilled campaign promises when it comes to Social Security, an issue where he has been much maligned by Democrats and some in the media.
«I am proud of the extraordinary work by our dedicated employees at SSA to help deliver on President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security,» Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), told Fox News Digital in a statement.
«They have worked tirelessly to improve customer service while safeguarding Americans’ hard-earned benefits from waste, fraud, and abuse. It will take time to fully recover from the disastrous policies of the previous administration, which led to sky-high wait times for customer service and unconscionable delays for benefit decisions,» Dudek continued. «But SSA employees are leading the turnaround by refocusing their work on frontline customer service, modernizing IT for a better customer experience, and bolstering program integrity.»
The administration, which has called Trump’s first 100 days the most successful of any administration, says that it has made «significant strides» in moving the Social Security Fairness Act forward and has paid over $14.8 billion in retroactive payments to over 2 million individuals affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset.
GOP SENATOR TURNS TABLES ON DEM NARRATIVE ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE: ‘GET FRAUD OUT OF THERE’
The Trump administration is touting its improvements to Social Security during President Donald Trump’s first 100 days. (Getty)
Trump’s moves on Social Security come as Democrats, including former President Joe Biden, have accused the administration of plotting to slash Social Security benefits, particularly through the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) efforts to reform the agency.
However, the administration says that it is focused on reforms, not cutting benefits, and a White House official told Fox News Digital that SSA has identified over $1 billion in cost avoidance or efficiencies for fiscal year 2025 «through new, common-sense approaches in areas such as payroll, information technology, contracts and grants, real property, printing, travel, and purchase card policies.»
Examples include reducing software licensing, salvaging and repairing tables and chairs, returning leased motor vehicles, converting in-person training to online, streamlining case assignment and tracking systems, and reducing travel card spending allowances.
Additionally, the White House official says the agency has made strides in implementing fraud prevention tools, including tools that help identify fraudulent claims via telephone.
Many, including DOGE chief Elon Musk, have raised concerns about the accuracy of Social Security records, particularly when it comes to data related to whether a person is deceased or still on the rolls despite being well over 100 years old.
The White House told Fox News Digital that progress has been made on that front as well to improve the accuracy of death data and called that effort a «high priority» that was a low priority in the previous administration.
FEDERAL JUDGE TEMPORARILY RESTRICTS DOGE ACCESS TO PERSONALIZED SOCIAL SECURITY DATA
Social Security card. (Kurt «CyberGuy» Knutsson)
Musk has drawn the ire of Democrats by referring to Social Security as a «Ponzi scheme.»
Fox News Digital spoke to an expert earlier this year who made the case that Musk has a point in using the term «Ponzi scheme.»
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DOGE leader Elon Musk has been hit with 96% negative coverage on ABC, NBC and CBS evening newscasts, according to the Media Research Center. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
«Musk’s statement about Social Security being the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme does have validity,» James Agresti, president of the nonprofit research institute Just Facts, told Fox News Digital in response to pushback from Musk’s claim, which included a «false» rating from Politifact.
«A Ponzi scheme operates by taking money from new investors to pay current investors. That’s the definition given by the SEC, and contrary to popular belief, that’s exactly how Social Security operates.»
Politics,Social Security,Trump’s First 100 Days
Several people were injured in the Swedish city of Uppsala on Tuesday after a series of loud bangs that indicated gunfire, police said, without immediately providing any further details on what might have happened.
In a statement, the police said they had received calls from members of the public who heard noises that sounded like gunshots being fired in the city center. Emergency services are on the scene, the police added.
PM DECLARES ‘WORST MASS SHOOTING IN SWEDISH HISTORY’ AFTER GUNMAN KILLS 10 ON SCHOOL CAMPUS
«Several people have been found with injuries that indicate gunfire,» the statement said.
A local hospital declined to comment on the condition of those injured.
Police said they had cordoned off a large area and had begun an investigation.
Shots were believed to have been fired in the Swedish city of Uppsala on Tuesday. (KICKI NILSSON/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images)
SHOOTING IN CANADA LEAVES A DOZEN WOUNDED, POLICE SAY
Ten people were killed in February in the Swedish city of Örebro in the country’s deadliest ever mass shooting, in which a 35-year-old unemployed loner opened fire on students and teachers at an adult education center.
The Nordic country’s right-wing government subsequently said it would seek to tighten gun laws.
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Defensor principal de las criptomonedas
En la conferencia, el Sr. Trump dijo que la criptomoneda «Es el futuro de nuestros sistemas financieros». Foto Haiyun Jiang para The New York Times
Ilustración de Ricardo Tomás; Foto de George Clerk vía Getty ImagesUna avalancha de inversores
Justin Sun es el criptoejecutivo que más puede beneficiarse de su afiliación a World Liberty. Foto Tamir Kalifa para The New York Times
Eric Trump calificó World Liberty como una de las empresas más exitosas de la familia. Foto Tamir Kalifa para The New York TimesLas estrellas se alinean
Dominik Schiener, un veterano de 14 años en el sector de las criptomonedas que fundó la Fundación IOTA, calificó de «deshonesto» el planteamiento de World Liberty. Foto Axel Schmidt/Reuters
Ondo, una start-up de criptomonedas respaldada por Peter Thiel, ayudó a patrocinar el Crypto Ball, un evento de inauguración. Foto Jason Andrew para The New York TimesAgradéceme después
Ilustración de Ricardo Tomás; Fotografía de Keystone Pictures USA, vía Alamy
El presidente Trump organizó la primera cumbre sobre activos digitales en la Casa Blanca el mes pasado. Foto Haiyun Jiang para The New York Times
One hundred days into his new administration, President Donald Trump has reset negotiations with allies and foes across the globe, and experts say one is certain: it is all transactional.
Gone are the days when the U.S. could be drawn to throw its force around the world solely in the name of defending or spreading democracy. Global leaders are learning to speak a new language with U.S. leadership, one that is less about ideology and more about how their interests benefit U.S. interests.
«There is a lot more transactional engagement rather than I think we’re ideological-based, policy decisions that were sort of the hallmark of the Biden administration,» said Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum.
Here is a round-up of how Trump has changed U.S. foreign policy since taking office:
FOX NEWS POLL: THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SECOND TERM
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, left, and President Donald Trump are working on a nuclear deal. (West Asia News Agency, Reuters | SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Negotiating a deal to avert a nuclear Iran
Former President Joe Biden toyed with reviving a nuclear deal with Iran and criticized Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but his administration made little progress toward serious negotiations.
Trump has now expressed interest in a new nuclear deal. He told Israel the U.S. would not come to their aid in attacking Iran until diplomatic negotiations played out.
As Trump’s team met with Iranian counterparts in Oman this weekend for a second round of nuclear talks, he issued another threat: if negotiations whither away, the U.S. would not be dragged by Israel into war with Iran but will be «leading the pack.»
Taking Yemen’s Houthis head-on
An offensive campaign against Yemen’s Houthi terrorists launched six weeks ago has struck more than 800 targets and cost nearly $1 billion – a sharp departure from the tit-for-tat retaliatory strikes seen under the Biden administration, when Houthis attacked U.S. naval ships and Western commercial vessels.
«Biden pursued a policy of retaliatory strikes: If you hit us, we’ll hit you,» said Roman. «What Trump is trying to do is what I call a salting the earth strategy. If you dare challenge American military supremacy or the ability for us to conduct free trade to the bottom of or through the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Yemen, Red Sea, Suez … We will attempt to end your ability to wage war on the United States in its interests.»
US STRIKES KILL HUNDREDS OF HOUTHI FIGHTERS, HIT OVER 800 RED SEA TARGETS: CENTRAL COMMAND
President Donald Trump is taking a different approach when dealing with Houthi fighters. (AP Images/Getty Images)
From funding Ukraine ‘as long as it takes’ to demanding a negotiated settlement
While Biden had promised the U.S. would stand by Ukraine «as long as it takes» in the war against Russia, Trump expressed a desire to see the war come to an end, promising that he could end the war on «day one» of his presidency.
One hundred days in, the war is not over. Negotiations are ongoing, and Trump has jumped between sounding off in frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As Putin continues to strike even civilian regions of Ukraine, Trump questioned on Saturday whether the Russian leader truly wants peace or is «tapping me along.»
He again questioned whether he would need to slap «secondary sanctions» on nations that do business with Russia to starve its war coffers.
On Monday, Russia offered a three-day ceasefire from May 8-10, but the White House was not satisfied. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump wants a «permanent ceasefire.»
Trump met face-to-face with Zelenskyy in Rome on Saturday, the first time since their infamous Oval Office spat in February, after slamming Zelenskyy’s latest rejection of his peace proposal, one that would have formally ceded Crimea to the Russians.
President Donald Trump, left, met face-to-face with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since their Oval Office spat in February over the weekend. (Vatican and Ukraine Ambassador to Holy See)
Strategic takeover: New pushes for Greenland, Panama
The Monroe Doctrine is back, analysts say, and Trump wants both Greenland and the Panama Canal under U.S. control.
The proposals drew shock across the world, but at least in Panama, Trump’s bold words prompted a proposal to offer the U.S. «first and free» passage for its warships, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this month. It also spurred the proposed sale of two ports of entry from Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison to U.S.-based BlackRock, though that deal has been delayed by Chinese regulatory and political scrutiny.
Efforts to attain Greenland have proved less successful. Tough talk against Denmark and its ownership of Greenland has ratcheted up tensions with the NATO ally and Greenland’s leadership has expressed little interest in becoming a part of the U.S.
However, Trump has called out the threat of Russia and China’s increasing arctic military capabilities – the shortest range for a missile to travel from Russia to the U.S. would be over the icy island’s territory. Trump is also interested in the rare earth mining potential of the massive swath of land.
President Donald Trump wants the U.S. to control the Panama Canal. (REUTERS/Enea Lebrun/File Photo)
Allies step up for their own defense
Trump’s threats to pull out of the NATO alliance – or refuse to come to the defense of allies that do not contribute enough military spending – has left nations across the world planning for the contingency that they may have to defend themselves without U.S. aid.
The European Union announced a plan for its nations to spend $840 billion to «re-arm Europe» after Trump halted all aid to Ukraine in March.
Countries like Spain, Belgium and Sweden have all announced plans this year to increase defense spending to meet NATO’s 2% target, while eastern European states near Russia’s border, including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland, have announced plans to increase defense spending to around 5%.
Punishing China for unfair trade practices
Concern over China’s hegemonic ambitions bridges the partisan divide, but the Biden White House never considered such drastic measures as 145% tariffs.
Trump has said the goal of the tariffs is to both bring back US manufacturing after decades of offshore production and punish China for intellectual property theft, a massive trade imbalance, and fentanyl flowing from China to the U.S. A free trade push in the early 2000s had wrongly assumed liberal trade policies would bring democratic values and free markets into Chinese borders, his supporters argue.
Trump has insisted that President Xi Jinping wants to cut a deal to lower the soaring tariffs, even as China has rejected the prospect of talks.
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It is unclear what sort of realistic concessions the U.S. could get out of a deal, perhaps promises to buy more American-made agricultural products, fuel or other specialty goods.
For now, steep tariffs remain, and China is choking off U.S. supply of critical minerals, which could spell deep trouble for everyday electronics, electric vehicles and defense equipment.
Donald Trump,White House,Foreign Policy,Middle East,Russia,Ukraine,China,Greenland
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