President and Musk claim millions of centenarians are getting benefits. Here’s how they are misrepresenting data
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,Donald Trump and his 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 so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) 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:
On Tuesday, Trump said at a press briefing in Florida: “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 there was one person in the system listed as 360 years old.
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