The new commissioner of the Social Security Administration had to find out about his new job from the internet.
Newly sworn-in SSA head Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive, revealed during a 90-minute town hall Wednesday that when the Trump administration offered him the position, he had no idea what the job entailed.
“What the heck’s the commissioner of Social Security?” Bisignano recalled asking himself, according to an audio recording of the phone meeting obtained by ABC News. “What am I going to do?”
Bisignano then searched for what, exactly, Social Security was, telling town hall attendees, “You know, one of my great skills, I’m one of the great Googlers on the East Coast.”
“Put that as the headline for the post: ‘great Googler-in-chief, chief-in-Googler,’ or whatever,” he added.
After researching the role, the “great Googler-in-chief”—who has no experience in government or with the Social Security system—accepted the Trump administration’s offer. He now runs one of the largest federal agencies, in charge of programs that provide disability insurance, survivor benefits, and retirement benefits to more than 70 million Americans.
The SSA has come under fire from Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In April, DOGE attempted to eliminate teleclaim services, which let Americans update their accounts over the phone, causing mayhem for days until the service was reinstated. A senior executive was also reportedly physically dragged from his office after speaking out against DOGE.
During the town hall, Bisignano tried to ease concerns about the future of the SSA, noting that he and Trump agreed that Social Security is “not going away.”
“This is America‘s, you know, safety net—it’s not going away. And hopefully you hear me say this every day,” he said. “You know who wants me to tell people that? Guess. The president.”
He also addressed Social Security managers’ concerns about DOGE.
“Who’s heard of DOGE? Raise your hand, right? Your bias has to be, because mine is, DOGE is helping make things better,” he said. “It may not feel that way, but don’t believe everything you read.”
Bisignano said that DOGE plans to help bolster the agency, from helping rebuild the Social Security website to incorporating artificial intelligence into its phone support systems.
According to ABC, sources have said that these changes to help modernize the SSA are just another effort by DOGE to cut costs, claiming that Musk‘s department has also been reassigning staff and outsourcing administrative functions.
After being announced as the new head of the SSA, Bisignano received an onslaught of criticism from Democrats, activists, union leaders, and lawmakers who protested his selection prior to his Senate confirmation vote, which took place on May 6.
“Did you guys know there was a protest against me?” Bisignano asked attendees at the town hall. “Who knows there was a protest against me?”
“I like that protest—I want to prove them so wrong, man, this is going to be most fun I ever had,” he added.
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