President Donald Trumps claim that there is shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security system during his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday is just the latest in a series of attacks from the Republican administration, sparking concern over the programs future.Meanwhile, Trump adviser Elon Musk has falsely called it a Ponzi scheme, and hes even claimed on X that some 20 million dead Americans over the age of 100 were receiving payments which, of course, has been debunked. (Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said those claims are an outrageous lie . . . intended to lay the groundwork to cut benefits.)At the same time Musks Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been caught trying to access private, personal taxpayer data at the Social Security Administration (SSA), leading the acting head of the SSA to reportedly resign.It comes on the heels of the SSAs cuts to some 7,000 jobs as part of DOGEs slashing of the federal workforce, which threaten to interrupt Social Security payments within the next 30 to 90 days, according to former SSA commissioner Martin OMalley.Ultimately, youre going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits, OMalley told CNBC.That threat has a lot of people wondering what theyre gonna do when their social security checks start failing, one Bluesky user noted. It also angered another user, who goes by Sandi Bachom, who posted, Im 80 years old. I decided to call #SocialSecurity . . . If you are calling about a disability application due to staffing reductions, our average processing time for disability applications is 200 to 230 days. The estimated hold time is greater than 120 minutes.'About72.5 millionpeople, including retirees, disabled people, and their families receive Social Security benefits; and many elderly Americans rely on the checks just to make ends meet.Several Democrats also took to social media to set the record straight, including Democratic Washington Senator Patty Murray, who explained on X, Trump is LYING about Social Security right now . . . [He and Musk] are cutting staff drastically at Social Security to make it harder for seniors to get their benefits. These corrupt billionaires need to keep their HANDS OFF Social Security!Senator Sanders added on X, What is the goal of this disinformation campaign? To privatize the most successful government program in history and give it over to Wall Street.According to the Brookings Institution, that would be difficult and has a major financial hurdle, because Social Security has accumulated trillions of dollars in liabilities to workers who are already retired or who will retire soon. To make room for a new private system, policymakers would have to find funds to pay for these liabilities while still leaving young workers enough money to deposit in new private accounts, which would lead to cutting benefits or increasing contributions from current workers.