WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that the Trump administration was committed to protecting Social Security hours after he said in an interview that a new children’s savings program President Donald Trump signed into law “is a back door for privatizing Social Security.”
Bessent said Wednesday evening that the accounts created under Trump’s tax break-and-spending cut law “will supplement the sanctity of Social Security’s guaranteed payments.”
“This is not an either-or question: our Administration is committed to protecting Social Security and to making sure seniors have more money,” Bessent said in a post on X.
Bessent’s remarks about privatizing Social Security, which he made at a forum hosted by Breitbart News, were striking after Trump’s repeated promises on the campaign trail and in office that he would not touch Social Security. It also reignited an issue that has dogged Republicans for years.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Democrats quickly seized on the comment as a sign the GOP wants to revive a dormant but unpopular push to privatize the long-running retirement program.
“A stunning admission,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a Senate speech. “Bessent actually slipped, told the truth: Donald Trump and government want to privatize Social Security.”
The idea of privatizing Social Security has been raised by Republicans before, but quickly abandoned. Millions of Americans have come to rely on the certainty of the federal program in which they pay into the system during their working years and then receive guaranteed monthly checks in their older age.
Privatization proposals would shift the responsibility for the retirement savings system away from the government and onto Americans themselves. Through personal savings accounts, people would need to manage their own funds, which may or may not be enough to live on as they age.
Under the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill,” as the law is called, Republicans launched a new children’s savings program, Trump Accounts, which can be created for babies born in the U.S. and come with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury.
Much like an individual retirement account, the Trump Accounts can grow over time, with a post-tax contribution limit of $5,000 a year, and are expected to be treated similarly to the rules for an IRA, and can eventually be tapped for distribution in adulthood.
But Bessent on Wednesday allowed for another rationale for the accounts, suggesting they could eventually be the way Americans save for retirement.
“In a way, it is a back door for privatizing Social Security,” Bessent said while speaking about the program.
The Treasury Department later issued a statement that said, “Trump Accounts are an additive government program that work in conjunction with Social Security to broaden and increase the savings and wealth of Americans. Social Security is a critical safety net for Americans and always will be.”
Ever since the George W. Bush administration considered proposals to privatize Social Security more than 20 years ago, Republicans have publicly moved away from talking about the issue that proved politically unpopular and was swiftly abandoned.
In the run-up to the 2006 midterms, Democrats capitalized on GOP plans to privatize Social Security, warning it would decimate the program that millions of Americans have come to rely on in older age. They won back control of both the House and the Senate in Congress.
The Democrats warned Wednesday that Bessent’s comments showed that Republicans want to shift the government-run program to a private one and are again trying to dismantle the retirement program that millions of Americans depend on.
“Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just said the quiet part out loud: The administration is scheming to privatize Social Security,” Tim Hogan, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement.
“It wasn’t enough to kick millions of people off their health care and take food away from hungry kids. Trump is now coming after American seniors with a ‘backdoor’ scam to take away the benefits they earned,” Hogan said.
The Social Security program has faced dire financial projections for decades, but changes have long been politically unpopular.
Social Security’s trust funds, which cover old age and disability recipients, will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034, according to the most recent report from the program’s trustees.
Those officials have said those findings underline the urgency of making changes to programs.
Trump, attuned to Social Security’s popularity, has repeatedly said he would protect it.
Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would “always protect Social Security” and said his Democratic opponents, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, would destroy the program.
During the 2024 primary, he accused other Republicans who have expressed support for raising the age for Social Security of being threats to the program.
Trump said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” in December after he won the presidential election that “we’re not touching Social Security, other than we might make it more efficient.”
His White House this year said Trump “will always protect Social Security.”
Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano, a Wall Street veteran, was asked at his confirmation hearing in March about whether Social Security should be privatized. He said he’d “never heard a word of it” and “never thought about it.”
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