Orlando disability, senior advocates slam Trump administration’s threats to Social Security

At least a couple dozen people lined the sidewalk outside the Social Security Administration office in downtown Orlando Friday, as disability and senior citizens’ advocates gathered to raise awareness of the threats the Trump administration has made toward the social security benefits system.

While President Donald Trump has reportedly promised not to cut social security benefits for the 73 million people already enrolled in the program, the administration has, at the same time, moved to cut the Social Security Administration’s staff and threatened to shutter dozens of Social Security offices nationwide, including a location in Melbourne. Cuts to staff have already restricted access to SSA services, advocates say, due to longer wait times for help and website crashes.

“The changes that I’m seeing right now are just outrageous,” said Orlando attorney Sarah Jacobs, one of just 10 board-certified social security attorneys in the state, who helps people with disabilities access life-saving government benefits. She’s been in practice for 14 years.

“When you call Social Security right now, you can call the Orlando field office, and then after 18 minutes of being on hold, you get disconnected,” she shared. “Our clients want answers, and they deserve answers.” It can already take someone as long as 18 months to be informed whether they qualify for disability benefits as it is, she explained, even at current SSA staffing levels.

According to U.S. Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-FL), more than 113,000 people in his Orlando-area district rely on social security benefits, including more than 80,000 retirees, nearly 6,000 widows, and nearly 15,000 workers with disabilities. Labor and disability advocates gathered with Frost on Friday outside Orlando’s Social Security Office with signs reading “Hands off our Social Security” and “Close loopholes for Wall Street and the rich.”

“These are our parents, our grandparents, children, working families, people who have already lost so much in many cases, and the Trump administration, backed by GOP lawmakers, are actively trying to rip away not just the [Social Security] benefits, but the people who process these claims, the people who send the checks,” Frost declared.

President Trump, Frost added, is “a damn liar.”

“When he says he’s going to love on Social Security and he’s going to love on Medicaid, the question is: If you’re going to love on these programs and protect them, why are you firing the people who actually administer the programs?”

Shonda Jackson, a union leader with the American Federation of Government Employees, told Orlando Weekly that the Social Security administration has lost at least 3,000 staff so far under the Trump administration, from roughly 57,000 staff nationwide to 54,000.

Jackson herself, an executive board member for AFGE Local 4156, represents over 5,000 teleservice and workload support unit employees in the Social Security Administration. Under the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, on a mission to downsize the federal government, Jackson expects more federal workers’ jobs could be on the chopping block.

“The agency is down approximately 15,000 in staff since 2018,” she explained, adding that the Social Security Administration “is currently severely understaffed” and headed to a 50-year low in staffing. “Inadequate staffing will delay beneficiary claims from being paid timely and cause obstacles to those filing and receiving benefits,” said Jackson.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk — one of the richest men in the world — has, while advising Donald Trump on DOGE efforts, claimed that the Social Security program millions rely upon is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Musk has also alleged “waste” and “fraud.”

“It has been challenged that individuals 150 years old are receiving payments,” said Jackson, referring to comments made by Musk. “Social Security has only been in existence for 89 years,” Jackson pointed out. “Make it make sense.”

Congressman Frost, a frequent critic of Trump, slammed Republican colleagues of his going along with Trump’s agenda, calling them “spineless politicians.”

“Social Security is not some government handout. It’s an earned benefit, something you pay into every single paycheck of your working life,” Frost argued. “This shouldn’t be a partisan thing, but it’s a partisan thing right now. It’s Republicans in Congress that are bowing to Donald Trump and not stepping up.”

Republicans, some of whom have recently criticized parts of Trump’s agenda, currently control both the U.S. House and Senate. As part of its mission to downsize the federal government, the Trump administration has moved to enact a “reduction in force” at dozens of federal agencies, including agencies responsible for providing veterans assistance, combating the overdose crisis, protecting workers’ rights, and keeping national parks safe and clean.

The administration has also moved to gut collective bargaining rights for more than 1 million federal employees, cut wages for employees of federal contractors, and enact tariffs on foreign countries that Trump admitted “won’t be easy” for Americans to weather. Last month, Trump brazenly admitted he “couldn’t care less” if automakers, for instance, raise prices on vehicles and car parts in response to tariffs that affect their own bottom line. Trump’s tariffs could affect everything from wedding costs to rents and grocery prices.

“The Trump tariff war has created so much instability in our country, all in service of him, consolidating power for himself and enriching his billionaire friends and corporations,” Frost said.

“We have a budget coming before us that is going to include about a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid,” he added. “So this is about protecting Social Security, but also about the other programs that working people have fought hard for for generations.”

Florida lawmakers in the state Legislature, meanwhile — who are failing to reach agreement in their own budget talks — are considering their own legislation that would make it harder for laid-off workers to access Florida’s meager unemployment benefits. Workers, under that system, can only access up to $275 per week as it is. Most Democrats have opposed the measure, including Orlando State Reps. Anna Eskamani and Jennifer “Rita” Harris.

“We already have narrow criteria to be eligible [for unemployment assistance], which means, if you’re a gig worker, self-employed and business is slow, you do not qualify for unemployment,” said Eskamani, speaking on the House floor last week. “I’m very concerned this bill is already going to make a broken system more broken.”

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This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2025.