During Donald Trump’s presidential transition process, there were plenty of rumors that billionaire Howard Lutnick was well positioned to lead the Treasury Department — one of the most sought-after positions in any White House Cabinet. The Associated Press reported that Elon Musk, among others, even lobbied on his behalf.
Those efforts ultimately fell short, and Trump tapped Lutnick to serve as the commerce secretary. As for why, exactly, he didn’t get a more prominent position, The Bulwark reported two weeks after Election Day that Lutnick kept “shooting himself in the foot” by making needlessly provocative public comments that annoyed the incoming Republican team. The report quoted a Trump adviser who said Lutnick needed to learn how to “shut the f— up.”
Four months later, the same problem persists. Lutnick announced that the president was preparing to waive taxes on Americans earning under $150,000 per year, only to walk that back soon after. He urged a national television audience to buy stock in Tesla, sparking an ethics controversy the White House struggled to defend.
Common sense might’ve suggested that Lutnick would start avoiding microphones for a while, but instead, as USA Today reported, he made matters vastly worse.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested this week that only “fraudsters” would complain about missing a Social Security check — but honest people like his mother would simply live with the fact that the government didn’t mail their monthly payment.
During an appearance on a conservative podcast, the billionaire said, “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”
Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick says if Social Security skipped a check, his mother-in-law wouldn’t complain—and if you would, it indicates you are probably a fraudster. Insane.
— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) 2025-03-21T18:18:10.703Z
In case that wasn’t quite enough, Trump’s commerce secretary added that he and his colleagues know the “easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen.”
Billionaires like Lutnick might not understand this, but for millions of struggling Americans, Social Security benefits are a critically important lifeline. A missing check for a month would mean they couldn’t buy groceries.
When those folks call to complain about a Social Security check that didn’t arrive, it doesn’t mean they’re criminals. It means they’re hungry.
In a healthier political environment, out-of-touch nonsense like this would almost certainly lead to an unpleasant phone call in which the president urged his commerce secretary to choose a new career path.
But stepping back, there’s also a larger context to this. While Lutnick spoke publicly about a hypothetical scenario in which the Social Security Administration didn’t send checks for a month, the Trump administration’s acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration raised the prospect of shutting down the system that undergirds the agency, though he backtracked soon after. It was against this backdrop that the Trump administration also announced plans to slash the Social Security Administration’s workforce, while simultaneously forcing more Social Security beneficiaries to make in-person appearances at local offices that will have fewer employees. Martin O’Malley, who served as the Social Security commissioner in the Biden administration, appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Friday night and said Trump administration officials had already taken 90% of the actions necessary to “crater” the agency. The former Democratic governor added that Americans “should be outraged. The Washington Post published a much-discussed report the day after Christmas that highlighted the perspectives of several low-income voters who supported the Trump ticket in the 2024 elections. The article specifically referenced a middle-aged Pennsylvania woman who struggles to make ends meet despite receiving food stamps and Social Security benefits, who explained why she voted for the Republican ticket. “[Trump] is more attuned to the needs of everyone instead of just the rich,” the woman told the Post. “I think he knows it’s the poor people that got him elected, so I think Trump is going to do more to help us.” I wonder what her reaction was to Lutnick’s comments.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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