Former President Joe Biden came out of hiding and made his first major speech since leaving the White House on Tuesday, attacking the Trump administration at a conference for Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) conference in Chicago.
Biden claimed, without evidence, that Americans are facing unprecedented uncertainty about their Social Security benefits under the Trump administration.
“Seriously, people are now genuinely concerned for the first time in history, for the first and only time in history, that Social Security benefits may be delayed or interrupted,” Biden said. “In the 90 years since Franklin Roosevelt created the Social Security system, people have always gotten their Social Security checks. They’ve gotten them during wartime, during recessions, during the pandemic. No matter what, they got them. But now, for the first time ever, that might change.”
The former president focused his criticism on the Trump administration’s decision to reduce overhead at the Social Security Administration by cutting unneccessary staffers since taking office in January. These cuts are part of President Donald Trump’s broader initiative to reduce government waste and fraud, and realign federal agencies with “America First” policies.
Biden characterized the administration’s approach as following the Silicon Valley mantra to “move fast, break things,” adding, “They’re certainly breaking things. They’re shooting first and aiming later. The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights.”
He also accused Republicans of targeting Social Security to fund tax cuts, and said Americans need more federal spending.
“My friend, Gov. O’Malley, knows what they’re really up to. He says, and I love his quote, ‘They want to wreck it so they could rob it,'” Biden said. “Why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations and keep it going.”
The Trump administration quickly pushed back against Biden’s claims. The official Social Security X account posted that “Biden is lying to Americans” and provided a list of “facts,” including that Trump has repeatedly pledged to protect benefits and that no field offices have been closed since January 20.
Former President Joe Biden is lying to Americans.
Here are the facts:
1️⃣President Trump has repeatedly promised to protect Social Security and ensure higher-take home pay for seniors by ending taxation on Social Security benefits.
— Social Security (@SocialSecurity) April 15, 2025
3️⃣SSA is taking commonsense steps to transform how we serve the public – last month, we spent $16.5 million to modernize telephone services nationwide. We’re developing cutting-edge, AI-powered tools to streamline simple tasks.
— Social Security (@SocialSecurity) April 15, 2025
5️⃣Over 2 million illegal aliens were assigned SSNs in fiscal year 2024 alone.
— Social Security (@SocialSecurity) April 15, 2025
The White House has repeatedly rejected assertions that the Trump administration will cut Social Security benefits to seniors, vowing to “always protect” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
Since leaving office, Biden has been splitting his time between Delaware and Washington, D.C., and is reportedly working on a book while meeting with various Democratic Party leaders.
Biden’s return to public comes as several stunning tell-all books about the 2024 campaign are being published, with some reporting that White House staffers limited Biden’s interactions out of concern that he “might say the wrong thing or might feed the mental acuity narrative.” One book claimed Biden appeared “absolutely exhausted” ahead of his June debate against Trump, which raised public concerns about his cognitive abilities.