Trump Goes On Debunked Rant About 160-Year-Olds Drawing Social Security In Joint Address

President Donald Trump went on a wild rant about millions of 130-year-old-plus Americans committing “possible fraud” by drawing Social Security checks — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked — during his address to Congress.

Trump has been promoting the Elon Musk-fueled fiction for weeks, claiming that Social Security rolls with millions of people with no death record are an indication of potential rampant fraud. It’s actually a function of digital death records not being a thing until relatively recently.

But that didn’t stop Trump’s rant from making the species jump to his address to a joint session of Congress:

We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on.

Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. Oh oh. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119.

I don’t know any of them. I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite that elderly.

3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129, 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149.

And money is being paid to many of them. And we’re searching right now. Fact. Pam. Good luck. Good luck. You’re going to find it.

But a lot of money is paid out to people because it just keeps getting paid and paid and nobody does–. And it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country.

1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159 and over 130,000 people, according to the Social security databases, are age over 160 years old.

We have a healthier country than I thought Bobby.

(LAUGHTER)

Including, to finish, 1039 people between the ages of 220 and 229, one person between the age of 240 and 249, and one person is listed at 360 years of age, more than 100 years, more than 100 years older than our country.

The claim has been debunked repeatedly by many outlets, including the Associated Press:

So are tens of millions of people over 100 years old receiving benefits?

No.

Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system based on the COBOL programming language, which has a lack of date type. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago. The news organization WIRED first reported on the use of COBOL programming language at the Social Security Administration.

Additionally, a series of reports from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the agency has not established a new system to properly annotate death information in its database, which included roughly 18.9 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 or earlier but were not marked as deceased. This does not mean, however, that these individuals were receiving benefits.

Watch above via CNN’s coverage of Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress.