‘Child who didn't get his way’: ​Social Security head slammed for threat to 'shut it down'

A ruling this week that temporarily blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing personally identifiable information from the Social Security Administration has led to the agency’s acting chief threatening to shut it down, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek reacted to the scathing ruling issued yesterday by a federal judge in Maryland by meeting with lawyers from the agency and the Department of Justice following his warning that he could shut down the agency.

The sticking point for Dudek in U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander’s ruling on Thursday was her reference to “DOGE affiliates,” which Dudek is now arguing “could apply to all employees who access personally identifiable information, or PII, because of their obligations to cooperate with DOGE,” according to the Post.

“Everything in this agency is PII,” Dudek told the publication in an interview Friday where he criticized the judge’s ruling as “overly broad.” He added: “Unless I get clarification, I’ll just start to shut it down. I don’t have much of a choice here.”

The “dramatic move” from Dudek would be “unprecedented in the agency’s history and would immediately begin halting benefit payments for millions of Americans,” according to the Post.

It also stirred anger among organizations and political observers who sounded the alarm on the Trump administration’s latest threat to dismantle a key government agency millions of retired and disabled Americans depend on for financial survival.

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“The Trump regime is threatening to shut down the Social Security Administration in response to a court ruling blocking DOGE from further infiltrating the agency,” Former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich told his Bluesky followers. “If your Social Security check is late or doesn't arrive at all, remember who is to blame.”

The president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees issued a stern statement lambasting Dudek, who he called “way over his head.”

“Like a child who didn't get his way, Leland Dudek is threatening to shut down Social Security. Rather than comply with a lawful court order, he wants to see millions of families suffer all to curry favor with anti-worker billionaires,” the organization’s president, Lee Saunders, wrote on X. “Even for this administration, this is a new low.”

Attorney Matthew Cortland wrote on Bluesky that Dudek “said he would ask the judge to immediately clarify her order.”

“That's what I expect will happen,” he added. “But if Dudek turns off IT access to all SSA employees out of spite, I am confident the plaintiffs in this case will immediately inform the court.”

Writer Gary Legum reacted on Bluesky to the latest development with two words: “Good Christ."