Marking the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act, President Donald Trump announced a sweeping purge of nearly 275,000 illegal aliens from the Social Security system — a move he says will help shore up benefits for seniors and taxpayers.

“These are people… many of them had already left the country, and yet we were sending them checks all the time,” Trump told reporters. “We’ve already kicked nearly 275,000 off the system, and that number is now even larger.” He added that unlike Biden, who “never kicked anybody off,” his administration is taking aggressive steps to stop fraud and protect retirement funds for hardworking Americans.

The president emphasized that the purge is only one part of a broader strategy, including historic deportations and stricter oversight of fraudulent Social Security numbers. Back in April, Trump’s deputies began targeting numbers improperly issued under prior administrations, already wiping out more than 6,000 connected to migrants with criminal records, terrorist ties, or revoked visas.

For Trump, this fight ties directly into the original vision of Social Security. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law in 1935, it was meant to serve as a lifeline for the elderly during the Great Depression, not as a cash flow for noncitizens gaming the system. “What we’re doing is making the system strong. It’s making it strong,” Trump said.

The announcement is also political, underscoring a central Trump campaign promise to “protect Social Security” against both financial fraud and liberal schemes to water it down. His “One Big Beautiful Bill,” championed with Republican allies in Congress, framed protecting the program as a cornerstone of his presidency.

Critics are already crying foul, claiming the move is heavy-handed. But Trump’s supporters argue the numbers tell the story: hundreds of thousands of fraudulent accounts finally being stripped out, leaving Social Security funds where they belong — with seniors who worked and paid into the system their whole lives.

By cleaning house, Trump is attempting to reassure retirees that their benefits are secure while highlighting what he calls Biden’s failure to act. In a time of economic uncertainty, this strike against fraud is meant to show that the government can and will prioritize citizens over those here illegally.

Want me to tie this piece more directly to the 2026 midterms, framing Social Security protection as one of Trump’s most powerful weapons against Democrats?