“I will do everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is; to make this country rich again; to bring back our jobs; to get rid of deficits; to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse, which is rampant in this country, rampant, totally rampant.”
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VERIFIED — PARTIAL upheld. The promise has two components: don't cut Social Security ("not to touch") and leave it "the way it is." The cited sources genuinely document a mixed record, which PARTIAL correctly captures, and the outcome does not overstate the evidence. Source verification: 1) PolitiFact (Trump-O-Meter) — REACHABLE. The rated status shown is "Promise Kept," and the cited quote fragment "Trump proposed cuts, but Congress didn't bite" appears as a July 15, 2020 update headline. The page tracks the parallel no-cuts-to-Social-Security pledge (Trump proposed disability-program cuts in budgets; Congress never enacted them). Supports the benefits-protected core. QUOTE CONFIRMED. 2) CNBC — WebFetch returned HTTP 403 (automated-fetch bot-block, not a dead/removed page). Independently corroborated via a domain-scoped web search: the article exists at the exact cited URL and confirms the agency plan to reduce head count "to 50,000 from 57,000," "approximately a 12% reduction," and "7,000 employees." The cited figures are accurate and not fabricated. Supports the "did not leave it the way it is" operational half (largest SSA restructuring in decades). QUOTE SUBSTANCE CONFIRMED (verbatim string not retrievable due to the 403). 3) ProPublica — REACHABLE. Confirms Budget Director Russell Vought told disability advocates the rule change "isn't going to be happening," and Commissioner Bisignano subsequently confirmed the ~830,000-worker disability eligibility rule would not proceed. Supports the abandoned-deeper-cuts point. QUOTE CONFIRMED. Net: benefits were not cut and the deeper disability rule was dropped (core largely held), but the program was materially touched operationally — a ~12% / ~7,000-job workforce reduction, office/lease closures, and altered benefit taxation — so it was not left "the way it is." PARTIAL is the correct, non-overstated characterization. Confidence is moderate because a reasonable reviewer could argue FULL (benefits) or MISALIGNED (operational overhaul), and one of three sources could only be corroborated indirectly.
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