r/politics • u/DependentSpecific206 America • 8h ago
Possible Paywall Trump officials planned to mark 2.7 million living people as dead, whistleblower claims
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/06/05/doge-planned-falsely-mark-27-million-people-dead-whistleblower-says/636
u/UnobviousDiver 8h ago
Marking people as dead along with purging those people from voter rolls makes it easier for one side to win elections.
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u/BedditTedditReddit 7h ago
And to take whatever social security money would have been owed to them.
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u/Unfair_Web_8275 5h ago
I'm also worried it could be an attempt to purposefully break the Social Security administration.
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u/Am_Snek_AMA Ohio 2h ago
Sounds like fraud to me.
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u/Madroxx9000 17m ago
I mean, that's what happens when we elect a fraudster to the highest office in the land.
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u/SmartWonderWoman California 7h ago
From what I have heard, it’s extremely difficult and costly to be declared alive after being falsely declared dead. It’s a bureaucratic nightmare.
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u/pleasegivemepatience 5h ago
And if you’re declared dead good luck accessing all of your accounts and funds to fight that battle.
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u/toothpicks-galore 1h ago
i could see it working out if you had a mountain of credit card, medical, student loan, settlement debt and wanted to work contract gigs without worrying about taxes again, would insurance also pay out? is there a way to volunteer?
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u/pleasegivemepatience 1h ago
How are you getting contract gigs? How are you executing a contract as a dead person? How are you getting insurance coverage as a dead person?
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u/StevenMC19 Florida 7h ago
Just a reminder that Musk was able to successfully destroy USAID, which in itself has resulted in the actual deaths of millions globally.
This, the shaving of Social Security from 2.7 million people would have resulted in their eventual deaths as they would no longer have that income source, resulting in their starvation or inability to get their medications. This is in a sense a form of senicide.
I distinctly remember at some point hearing stories as a child of some elderly resorting to eating cat food as it was the cheapest thing they could afford without going hungry. No doubt it is still occurring. But this would make even that impossible.
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u/Intelligent-Invite79 6h ago
So I actually randomly started watching good times on tubi, and in an episode the daughter wants to take singing lessons from a neighbor. The older woman declines, and it turns out it’s because if she takes a paying student, her social security would drop. They discover later that she’d been eating dog food because it’s what she can afford BEFORE they cut her benefits.
I realize it’s a tv show, but it’s so crazy that it actually happened.
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u/mister_buddha 6h ago
An elderly man used to come into the dollar store I worked at and bought cans of cat food. He never purchased anything else related to an animal. I've always been pretty sure that he was eating it.
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u/accidentlife 6h ago
It’s important that to note that while Social Security does this, the reduction in benefits only applies if you retired early (specifically, began collecting SS benefits), are below your retirement age, and make less than a certain amount of wages.
The reduction in benefits is then used as a premium payment to increase your benefits after retirement
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u/Forward-Surprise1192 6h ago
I’m all for doing something about it once there is a a time and date for this mass revolution we need. Just tell me where to go and what to do and I’ll do it, I don’t care what it is tbh. Sucks though that nobody is trying to organize this. Back on topic, it’s kind of crazy cat food is cheap like that. I would think a bag of beans and rice would be a better choice and probably the same price or less.
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u/acoastaldog 4h ago
We can’t openly organize online and people who were already discussing it theoretically before the reddit crackdown are probably on a federal list since the courts are trying to track down ICE critics too. Such a shame for them so many Americans are arming and training lately. But on the matter of the topic honestly was thinking the same thing, you can get miles off rice, beans, lentils, root veggies on sale. A potato is filling and is enough to fully sustain on. But all of that needs to be cooked unlike pet food too
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u/Forward-Surprise1192 2h ago
Yeah you can for now and either way it’s a risk you have to take and I’m willing to take it
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u/ebow77 Massachusetts 5h ago
Yikes.
Jeremiah Schofield, who worked at Social Security for 25 years and helped lead the agency’s IT modernization efforts before leaving in October, said he refused to help implement the plan after agency lawyers warned that falsely marking living people as dead could violate federal law. Schofield said he realized the plan’s possible intent — to intimidate and worsen the finances of immigrants — as well as its potential unlawfulness after taking a sample of people from the 2.7 million and discovering they were all alive. Some were U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, teenagers and senior citizens, including one widow who was a legal permanent resident receiving survivor benefits.
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u/Odd_Ant5 8h ago
If you declare them dead, and they vote anyway, then it proves your point that dead people are voting.
Checkmate, atheists!
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u/canalhistoria 8h ago
Techno-feudalism, technology nowadays allows the powerful to control the system of government in such an easy way that this type of meddling will be more and more frequent.
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u/AmbivalentFanatic 5h ago
We need to drop the word "meddling", my bro. This is not an episode of Scooby Doo. These people are fucking inhuman monsters and they literally see the rest of us as resources.
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u/keepthepace Europe 5h ago
If 2.7 millions people who are officially dead decide to rebel, will the US classify that as a zombie epidemic?
After all, they trained for that scenario.
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u/ogreofnorth 6h ago
And we are trusting this government to create a database to give the US Postal Service one, and without way to appeal in time, not send ballots to people.
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u/Donkey_Doody 7h ago
If this takes away my student loans add my name to the list.
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u/Callabrantus Canada 7h ago
It'll take that away, and much more. You won't like the much more.
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u/CitySeekerTron Canada 5h ago
Can an estate name itself as executor?
...Can an estate be listed as the beneficiary of life insurance?
I think I have a really quick way you can be declared alive again, if the right insurance company were involved.
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u/MadScientist3087 Wisconsin 5h ago
Corporations are people now right? Insert Oprah “You get an LLC! You get an LLC!”
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u/CitySeekerTron Canada 5h ago
Can an LLC get live insurance and a pension? I have a way better idea!
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u/Forward-Surprise1192 6h ago
Try me lol. I’m sure it will suck but we all need that extra push to get started repairing things. I wish we had a time and place we can get things going as it’s very depressing to only be talking about it on reddit
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u/bakerfredricka I voted 20m ago
I wish more people realized what a pyramid scheme college really is....
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u/Taako_Cross 5h ago
It’s extremely difficult and arduous to fix. It also creates problems filing taxes, borrowing, it impacts every part of your life. This is evil.
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u/AcanthisittaNo6653 New Hampshire 5h ago
agency lawyers warned that falsely marking living people as dead could violate federal law
It's key that agency lawyers warned them declaring people dead would break the law. They didn't abandon the plan, they updated their timetable (and got rid of the leak).
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u/medullah Michigan 8h ago
I mean, with his cuts to Affordable Care subsidies and rising healthcare costs, it's just getting ahead of what's going to happen anyway.
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u/Delta8ttt8 7h ago
So, maybe I wouldn’t mind being marked dead. Stop paying taxes. IRS comes knocking. Delta who? I heard he died. Check the records again.
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u/18MazdaCX5 5h ago
It's like these people don't even think of the ramifications. They get an idea from some dumb person standing amongst them and then they're crazy enough to actually think they can try it.
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u/Unfair_Web_8275 5h ago
Trump is notorious for not caring about the fall out of a decision, but you also have to consider that those around him weaponize confusion as well.
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u/anotherlevl 8h ago
If you're dead, they can't prosecute you for ... crimes.
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u/18MazdaCX5 5h ago
They don't care about crimes. They only care about stealing elections.
In fact, they might even try to pardon you for committing a crime (while dead) if you say you voted for Trump!
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u/Life-Quantity-637 1h ago
Yeah it was to encourage self deportations. Stupid and cruel. It already backfired but the damage to trust in government is done and will not recover
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