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In remarks to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, President Donald Trump admitted that he wanted to push for privatizing Social Security in his first term in office, contradicting campaign promises he made in 2016 and earlier that he wouldn’t touch the popular social safety net program.
“I wanted to ride with Social Security being fully invested in the stock market, in the first month of my first year, so 2016,” Trump said, errantly conflating the year he was elected to the year he was inaugurated.
Trump complained that he wasn’t able to do so due to “tremendous criticism from the Democrats and some Republicans.”
Trump then reiterated his desire to privatize the program. “I wanted to do it so badly,” he said.
Trump described so-called “Trump Accounts,” investment accounts for children in the U.S., as “a version” of what Social Security privatization could look like — confirming observers’ fears that the accounts were a means to eventually overhaul the program.
At many points during his 2016 presidential campaign — and in the years prior to announcing a run — Trump denounced the idea of cutting Social Security as a way to reduce costs for the program, using his stance to differentiate himself from GOP rivals. But budget proposals he has sent to Congress as president have included deep cuts to Social Security.
A 2025 analysis published by Edward Lane, a professor at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, argued against the idea of privatization, noting that the privatization of similar retirement and social safety net programs around the world has failed.
“It is financially impossible to replace the scope of current Social Security benefits in the private market without a substantial increase in cost,” Lane noted, adding that there is also an increased financial risk in tying Social Security to the markets, as privatization “would subject retirement savings to stock market volatility, potentially leaving retirees with significantly reduced benefits during economic downturns.”
“The bottom line is that privatizing Social Security programs has not worked elsewhere, as benefits for many groups have been curtailed where it has been implemented. There is no reason to expect a different result in the U.S.,” Lane explained.
Social Security remains extremely popular among most Americans. An AARP poll published in August found that 95 percent of respondents view the program as important. Furthermore, 91 percent of Americans want Congress to enact legislation to protect Social Security so that it remains available to future generations, the survey found.
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