The subject line on the July 2 email from the Social Security Administration was largely unremarkable: “Making Life More Affordable for America’s Seniors.” What followed, however, was an unsubtle political message.<\/p>\n

The body of the email from Frank Bisignano, the SSA’s Trump-appointed commissioner, read in part:<\/p>\n

\n
This weekend, America celebrates its 250th birthday. For over 90 of those years, Social Security has provided financial freedom for America’s seniors. President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration are not only protecting Social Security, but we are providing meaningful and immediate relief to older Americans who have spent decades contributing to our nation’s economy.<\/p>\n
Just last year, on July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. This historic legislation included a tax cut that allows Americans 65 and older to keep more of their hard-earned Social Security benefits. Thanks to President Trump, over 35 million American seniors received an average of $7,500 in relief this tax season.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In case this weren’t quite ham-fisted enough, the same email went on to tout “the President’s signature tax cut for seniors,” adding, “Under the leadership of President Trump, we are protecting and strengthening Social Security while providing world-class customer service.”<\/p>\n
For those keeping score, Bisignano referred to Trump, by name or title, six times in a five-paragraph email.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem with the message was its misleading content. A year ago, for example, the president signed legislation that he personally named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Republicans later decided that the name of the domestic policy megabill hadn’t done them any favors, and GOP officials were told to start referring to the package as the “Working Families Tax Cut Bill” or the “Working Families Tax Plan” as part of a clumsy rebranding<\/a>.<\/p>\n
For the SSA to go along with that effort in official correspondence to beneficiaries is absurd.<\/p>\n
What’s more, Trump really didn’t eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits<\/a>no matter how many times the White House suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n
But making matters worse is the familiarity of the circumstances.<\/p>\n
A year ago this week, Bisignano sent a misleading email<\/a> to Social Security beneficiaries as part of an unsolicited political message. A month later, he took another step<\/a> down the same path. Late last week, it happened again.<\/p>\n
Americans need to be able to rely on ostensibly apolitical federal agencies for accurate information, free of partisan taint. When the public sees Trump rant online or during a conservative media interview, most probably realize it’s best to approach his nonsense with skepticism.<\/p>\n
But 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 bombard them with political messaging.<\/p>\n
And yet, here we are, watching the SSA join a list of politicized agencies, being used as partisan tools in the White House’s political toolbox, creating a dynamic in which many Americans are likely to approach the next message they receive from the government about Social Security with some skepticism.<\/p>\n
This post updates our related earlier coverage<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The subject line on the July 2 email from the Social Security Administration was largely unremarkable: “Making Life More Affordable for America’s Seniors.” What followed, however, was an unsubtle political message. The body of the email from Frank Bisignano, the SSA’s Trump-appointed commissioner, read in part: This weekend, America celebrates its 250th birthday. For over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}