Trump Slashes Social Security Staff, Raising Service Concerns

What Happened: The Social Security Administration announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs—roughly 12% of its workforce—as part of the Trump purge. The cuts come as more Americans than ever rely on Social Security, with over 73 million beneficiaries.

Why It Matters: With the agency already at a 50-year staffing low, these cuts will devastate customer service, delaying benefits for retirees, disabled Americans, and survivors. Despite Trump’s promises not to touch Social Security, his regime is gutting the agency that ensures people receive their payments.

That's why following Musk's approach is such a huge gamble for the Administration.

The general thesis they're operating under when cutting popular agencies is that the government can provide the same functionality with far fewer workers - that the employee rolls of the federal agencies are indeed filled with a lot of waste and "fat" that can be cut without affecting services. It's little different than when cutting the agencies whose missions conservatives dislike altogether, like USAID or Dept. of Education - Trump risks very little political capital if those agencies are unable to perform their functions. But when looking at the defense agencies, national security, law enforcement, Social Security, veteran's affairs, and a host of other governmental functions, the stakes are higher. There, the cutters have to be right that they can lose workers without affecting performance. "Move fast and break things" works well if you don't care about the thing being broken, but it will bite hard if it pisses off the voters in your base.

It will be fascinating to see what happens - which is why, I think, Trump's approval rating has stayed pretty constant despite the rapid upheaval in the federal government. He's getting the benefit of the doubt from his supporters, who are willing to give him (and Musk) a chance to prove what they're claiming. Their gamble is that they can make all these personnel cuts and either: i) everything still works okay; or ii) when things do break down, they can fix it by staffing up again.