President Donald Trump appointed a fraud detection expert to lead the Social Security Administration (SSA) after its acting commissioner reportedly resigned following a dispute over access to sensitive documents, according to The Washington Post.
Leland Dudek, who manages SSA’s anti-fraud office, will serve as acting commissioner while the Senate vets Frank Bisignano, Trump’s nominee for permanent commissioner. Dudek replaces Michelle King, a 30-year SSA veteran who quit after refusing to provide sensitive records to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team, according to the outlet. (RELATED: ‘Don’t Buy Into The Lies’: Karoline Leavitt Sets ‘Record Straight’ On Musk, DOGE And Social Security Waste)
“@POTUS has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the @SocialSecurity Administration, and we expect him to he swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks,” Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, wrote on X. “In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner.”
The appointment comes after Musk highlighted potential fraud in federal entitlement programs, claiming it “exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR.” Musk specifically pointed to millions of Social Security numbers belonging to impossibly elderly people — some apparently over 200 years old.
“Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as “ALIVE” when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem,” Musk wrote Monday. “Obviously. Some of these people would have been alive before America existed as a country. Think about that for a second.”
About 44,000 of the 18.9 million Social Security number holders over age 100 still collect benefits, while an estimated 86,000 people above that age are thought to be alive, according to an SSA Office of Inspector General report.
The selection of Dudek reportedly upset more senior SSA officials who felt passed over by the move. The agency has long struggled with budget and staffing issues, which former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley believes will worsen with DOGE’s involvement and leadership changes.
“At this rate, they will break it. And they will break it fast, and there will be an interruption of benefits,” O’Malley, who served under former President Joe Biden, told the outlet. “It’s a shame the chilling effect it has to disregard 120 executive service people. To pick an acting commissioner that is not in the senior executive service sends a message that professional people should leave that beleaguered public agency.”
King’s departure follows similar incidents across federal agencies, most recently a dispute over DOGE’s access to taxpayer information at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A federal judge is expected to rule on DOGE’s access to IRS and other data Tuesday afternoon.
The Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="35552 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=35552">8 Comments
THIS is where the big money has been lost .
THIS is where the big money is going to be found .
Go get ‘em Elon .Go get them .
……the best is yet to come. So enjoyable to see and hear the collective progressive nitwits whine snivel and out themselves on live tell-you-a-vision.
Maxine Wawa “We don’t know what THEY have on US!” Hilarious.
“YOU CAN’T FIRE ME!!!! I QUIT!!!!”
O’Malley is part of the problem. Promote more career Bureaucrats. Every.
Agency, that Elon has looked at so far. Is rife with fraud and abuse. This.
Government experience the democrats keep screaming about.
Is what’s got us in this mess in the first place.
This job should have been done by our four brit bulbs: King, Sue, Pingree and Jared. But they have been to busy looking out for their own paychecks.
Also they lack the brains to get it done.
Good Riddence… now let the Doge-s out…. go get ’em boys….
A lot of really old people on the books … some over 200 years old! I bet they all vote too.
” To pick an acting commissioner that is not in the senior executive service sends a message that professional people should leave that beleaguered public agency.”
Yes. That’s the point. If you’re so butthurt over not getting the promotion and not over the massive fraud just discovered on your watch, then you ought to leave! Let someone who wants to do the job well take your place, ya maroon.