It’s rare that a cushy federal position is left willingly. But these are odd times.
Now a bombshell resignation sent shockwaves through the federal government.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is facing a major shake-up as Acting Commissioner Michelle King abruptly resigned over the weekend, The Washington Post reports. King’s exit comes as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by Elon Musk’s team, ramps up its investigation into waste and fraud within the SSA.
According to three sources who spoke with the Post, King’s resignation stemmed from her clash with DOGE’s efforts to access Social Security records. Wasting no time, President Donald Trump appointed Leland Dudek—an outspoken supporter of Musk’s cost-cutting reforms and the SSA’s anti-fraud chief—as the new acting commissioner. Meanwhile, Trump’s nominee for the permanent role, Frank Bisignano, is awaiting Senate confirmation.
Dudek’s arrival has ruffled feathers among the SSA’s old guard. The Post reports that he has praised DOGE’s reforms on social media, signaling he’ll be a strong ally for Trump’s mission to clean up the agency.
Martin O’Malley, who served as SSA commissioner under former President Joe Biden, took aim at the shake-up, saying:
“Trump’s move sends a message that professional people should leave that beleaguered public agency.”
The White House, however, made it clear that a change in leadership is exactly what the SSA needs:
“In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner. President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long.”
Elon Musk, serving as Senior Advisor to President Trump, has become the face of DOGE’s aggressive probe into the SSA’s bloated and outdated systems—much to the outrage of Democrats. Their latest fear? DOGE accessing Social Security data to expose fraud.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back hard on the left’s fearmongering:
“Do not buy into the lies from the legacy fake news media who are trying to … scare you into believing otherwise,” she told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “Americans can rest assured that they will continue to receive their social security checks.”
Leavitt added that President Trump specifically tasked Musk and DOGE with rooting out fraud in the system:
“Musk and his team suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people receiving fraudulent Social Security payments.”
On Sunday, Musk took to social media with a startling revelation: The SSA’s database still shows millions of people over 100 years old as “alive”—despite only about 86,000 centenarians living in the U.S.:
“According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!” Musk wrote. “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.”
Musk’s vampire quip might be tongue-in-cheek, but the problem is real. Inspector general audits over the past decade uncovered the same issue: Millions of centenarians listed in the system—yet nearly none were cashing checks.
A 2023 audit revealed around 18.4 million centenarians appeared in the SSA database but didn’t receive benefits. The reason? Their deaths were never recorded—most likely because they died long before the digital record-keeping era. The inspector general concluded:
“We believe it likely SSA did not receive or record most of the 18.9 million individuals’ death information primarily because the individuals died decades ago — before the use of electronic death reporting.”
With Musk and DOGE tearing into decades of waste and fraud, and Dudek taking the reins at SSA, it’s clear the Trump administration is serious about reform. And while Democrats scramble to protect a broken system, the American people can finally hope their hard-earned Social Security dollars are safe from fraudsters—living or undead.
