The Federal Government is Emailing You Campaign Literature – Can Anyone Stop It?

A few years ago, I found myself in need of a replacement Social Security card. Without thinking about it all too much, I created a “my Social Security” account and, before long, I received my new card. But then, early last year, something weird happened.

I started getting a bizarre series of e-mails from the Social Security Administration––over the signature of the agency’s administrator––that read more like campaign literature. Among other things, they praised the Trump administration’s elimination of offices created under the Biden administration and applauded the passage of the president’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

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The language of the emails was florid. The most recent of the e-mails I received gives a flavor of the thing. A recent message from the Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, after wishing America a happy 250th birthday, informed me that “President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration” are delivering historic relief to seniors, that wait times are plummeting “under the leadership of President Trump,” and that, “put simply, America’s seniors are winning!”

This is the sort of message the Social Security Administration has been blasting out for over a year to more than 70 million account holders. In a normal political environment, this would be a big deal. But in an era where the Trump administration has “flooded the zone” with daily scandals, the emails have attracted little attention.

The messages come in a context where SSA has seen mass layoffs that are undermining its performance. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities report that:

agency leadership claims that SSA is “working better and faster than ever” seem readily undercut by press reports on customer service and processing strains at the agency. For example, phone wait times are much longer than publicly advertised; lengthy waits for appointments particularly…