On Thursday, October 22 — 12 days before the midterm elections — the Social Security Administration sent out an email.
It praised the "historic tax cut" President Trump signed last summer, Common Dreams reported. That's the Republican budget law — the same one that cut Medicaid and food assistance.
The email also promoted the law's new "Trump Accounts," investment accounts for children. "Trump Accounts are one of the most significant investments in the next generation of Americans in our nation's history, by giving every American child a stake in our country's success and a strong financial foundation for the future," the agency wrote.
Social Security exists to send checks to retirees, people with disabilities and survivors. Its email list isn't supposed to be a campaign tool.
Not the first time — the fourth
The agency is run by Frank Bisignano, Trump's pick for commissioner. Under him, this has become a habit. MS NOW's Steve Benen laid out the pattern:
- July 2025: a political email to beneficiaries.
- August 2025: another one, around Social Security's 90th anniversary.
- July 2, 2026: an unsolicited email celebrating Republican tax breaks.
- October 22, 2026: this one.
"When people get unsolicited official statements from the Social Security Administration, they should be able to have some confidence that the agency isn't trying to lobby them with political messaging," Benen wrote.
After the July 2026 email, a group of Democratic senators led by Elizabeth Warren wrote to Bisignano. They said that email "referred to President Trump six times" and named him directly in reference to "protecting and strengthening Social Security." Their letter put it bluntly: "It is safe to say that few presidents have done more than President Trump to damage Social Security—yet in an Orwellian twist, you are misusing official resources to heap praise on him."
What the email left out
The email sold the law as a gift. It skipped the parts that hurt the people reading it.
The same budget law damages Social Security's finances. And the "Trump Accounts" the agency promoted have been described by Trump's own treasury secretary as a backdoor way to privatize Social Security — the program sending the email. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has called them a path to privatizing it too.
It also came weeks after the Trump administration faced backlash for using taxpayer money to air political ads ahead of the midterms.
Republicans in Congress have been chipping away at the program from other directions too. We've reported on Tom Cole's Social Security commission bill, which would force Congress to vote yes or no on whatever a 13-member commission writes, with no amendments allowed, and on how Ron Estes — the chairman of the House's Social Security subcommittee — said he was looking forward to what DOGE would find there.
What it adds up to
Less than two weeks before the midterms, the Social Security Administration under Trump appointee Frank Bisignano used an official email to praise Trump's budget law and promote "Trump Accounts" — at least the fourth Trump-promoting message the agency has sent since July 2025. The email didn't mention that the same law damages Social Security's finances, or that Trump's own treasury secretary has described the accounts as a backdoor to privatizing the program.
Source
Social Security Agency Accused—Once Again—of Illegally Using Federal Resources to Praise Trump — Common Dreams, October 23, 2026
