Tag: trans athletes

Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek admits retaliating against Maine for Gov. Mills defying Trump on trans athletes, suspending state’s birth and death registration programs

Portland Press Herald: Social Security official ended program for Maine newborns because he was ‘ticked’ at Mills (archive) (2024-03-25):

The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration admitted this week that he specifically targeted Maine after watching Gov. Janet Mills clash with President Donald Trump during an event at the White House.

“I was ticked at the governor of Maine for not being real cordial to the president,” Lee Dudek told the New York Times.

Dudek directed the agency to cancel a decades-old program that allows parents to register their newborns for a social security number while at hospitals.

The mandate only applied to Maine and required new parents to show up at a Social Security office in person to register their newborns.

The change was rescinded one day later after an outcry from Maine and criticism from the state’s congressional delegation. A similar program to end electronic death records also targeted Maine and was quickly reversed. […]

Dudek issued an apology when he rescinded the order, although he never provided an explanation for the abrupt change or for the reversal.

“I screwed up. I’ll admit I screwed up,” Dudek told the Times this week. […]

Dudek said he made the decision after watching a testy exchange between Mills and Trump at the National Governors Association dinner in February.

In the February dust-up, Trump told Mills she had better change the state’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports or the state would not get any federal funding.

When Mills answered that she was following state and federal laws, Trump said, “We are the federal law.” Mills replied, “See you in court.”

Analysis

This is a clear example of a White House-selected acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Leland Dudek, retaliating against an entire state of mostly cis people by interfering with their SSA systems in a wholly unrelated manner, in reaction to a state leader challenging the president on his anti-trans policy. Dudek admits this response was inappropriate and he knows it. How do we know that other acts of inappropriate retaliation by the Social Security Administration against US residents, based on our policy disagreements with Trump on trans issues, won’t happen again?