The King's Speech

On Tuesday, March 4th President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress.  I do not begrudge our President the opportunity to take a victory lap; particularly on the heels of six busy weeks of cabinet hearings, executive orders, reductions in force, court hearings, spending freezes, tariffs followed by pauses, starts and follow-up pauses of the the latter.

The speech was exceedingly long however; meaning the volume of dubious claims or lies was target-rich.  Nothing new under the sun; nevertheless, worthy of truthful daylight.  Consequently, from time to time one of more of the King's gems will be featured here.

Enjoy. 

“We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on. Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don’t know any of them. I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite. 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129, 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139, 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. …”

This is false.  From all outward appearances the President was repeating fabrications posted on social media by Elon Musk.  As has been covered in the media this is a consequence of the Social Security Administration's (SSA) maintenance of their data bases using COBOL - a computer code invented when I was a toddler.  

A report issued by the inspector general for SSA as recently as 2023 documented that virtually every beneficiary who lacked a date of birth was deceased.  Coincidentally, neither the DOGE, White House, member of Congress or the media has been able to positively identify a an individual that falls into any category of the President's fabrications.