HANDS TIED

Trump’s Social Security Head Doubles Down on Threat to Shutter Administration

The acting commissioner of the SSA claims a ruling against DOGE has handcuffed his entire administration.

President Donald Trump’s interim Social Security chief doubled down Friday on his threat to outright shutter the Social Security Administration in retaliation to a ruling against the Department of Government Efficiency. Acting commissioner Leland Dudek alleged to The Washington Post the SSA cannot comply with a federal ruling—meant to block DOGE’s access to sensitive data within the administration—from Thursday because it would handcuff the work of his entire staff. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander ruled that Social Security officials are barred from sharing Americans’ personal information with DOGE staffers and its “affiliates” for two weeks. Dudek claimed Hollander’s ruling was too broad because, at this point, any SSA staffer could be considered an “affiliate” of DOGE as they are all obligated to cooperate with Elon Musk’s service. Dudek told the Post that government attorneys will file an affidavit asking Hollander to clarify language in her ruling, which he criticized as being “ambiguous,” “overly broad” and “weirdly written.” If she is unable to clear things up, Dudek threatens he will “just start to shut it down,” referring to SSA, adding that he does not “have much of a choice here.”