Amid fears that U.S. President Donald Trump's government-gutting billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, will target Social Security, elected officials, advocates, workers, and beneficiaries of the federal program for seniors and people with disabilities held a Monday rally in Maryland.
"We have one simple message, which is: Elon Musk, keep your hands off of our Social Security!" declared U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). He took aim at not only the chair of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency but also his "DOGE crew," warning of Musk and his minions "conducting illegal raids on federal agencies" in what other critics have called a "hostile corporate takeover of American democracy."
The senator pointed out that "they have accessed highly sensitive personal information on Americans at the Department of Treasury, including Social Security numbers, bank accounts, and other very sensitive information," and "worked to shut down a number of federal agencies," including the U.S. Agency for International Development and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
He also highlighted DOGE attacks on the U.S. Department of Education and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and reporting that "their next stop" is the Social Security Administration (SSA).
The rally at SSA headquarters was organized after Semafor reported Thursday that the agency "is an upcoming focus" of the Musk-led panel. As the outlet put it: "DOGE's interest in trying to root out fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, and perhaps soon in cutting at the Social Security Administration, suggests that government programs once seen as untouchable may be on the table."
Reporting on the rally, Newsweeknoted that "Trump has pushed back on the narrative that the popular benefits will be slashed, saying when asked if there are limits on what Musk can examine, 'Social Security will not be touched, it will only be strengthened.'"
"Trump has not made any official cuts to Social Security since taking office," the outlet added, "but amid his administration's attempted overhaul of government agencies and spending, the Social Security Administration could face personnel losses in terms of layoffs or administrative funding without cuts directly to Social Security payments."
Further fueling fears of DOGE-led attacks, Musk wrote on his social media platform X earlier Tuesday: "At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you've ever heard by FAR. It's not even close."
To this message, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas), fired back: "At this point I'm 100% certain that Elon Musk is looking for an excuse to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Fire Elon Musk."
In response to Semafor's reporting last week, Social Security Works, an advocacy group, warned that Trump was "empowering Elon Musk to play Russian roulette with our earned benefits."
The organization's communications director, Linda Benesch, told Common Dreams that "the Social Security Administration is already understaffed and underresourced. Musk and his gang of teenagers want to make this crisis worse, and make it harder for Americans to get the benefits they've earned."
"They may also intentionally or unintentionally break the technology SSA uses to calculate benefits," Benesch added. "We suggest that everyone go to SSA.gov and download a copy of their Social Security statement right away so that there's a record of what they've earned."
Speakers at the Monday rally slammed Trump and Musk's attempts to purge the federal workforce. U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) said that "we are standing in front of a building that represents thousands of Marylanders who have been coming to work in this building—civil servants for over 60 years now who have been coming to this building, doing the essential work of processing Social Security checks for nearly 72 million Americans."
"When we think about the servants who stand in this building and buildings all across our country, these are men and women who come to work every day—and these are not Democratic jobs or Republican jobs, these are American jobs," she continued. "It is also the case that those who have served in this building do so no matter who the president is. Many of them have served for decades, under Republican presidents, under Democratic presidents—again, because they serve the people."
"When you target civil servants, you also target the people they serve," Alsobrooks stressed. "They serve our grandmothers, our grandfathers, our mothers and fathers—like mine—our friends, our neighbors, and family members with disabilities who rely on Social Security."