The Social Security Administration (SSA) is reportedly in chaos due to swift changes being made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and one high-ranking insider believes it’s all on purpose.

“They’re creating a fire to require them to come and put it out,” the official, who recently took early retirement, told the Washington Post.

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Multiple additional sources told the publication they believe Musk is burning down the program to justify privatizing Social Security, which has long been a conservative goal.

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The SSA has long been plagued with financial challenges, and everything has only gone downhill since Musk was handed power.

DOGE representatives Mike Russo and Akash Bobba entered the SSA on January 31 and got access to data on every person in the U.S. with a Social Security number, according to a court filing challenging DOGE’s access to the data. The data includes the addresses, medical and work histories, tax, banking and citizenship information, and family records of every person in the U.S. with a Social Security number, Rolling Stone reported.

DOGE had access to the data for nearly two months before federal Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander ordered DOGE and Musk to delete any non-anonymized data and to stop accessing the data in general. The AFL-CIO, one of the nation’s biggest labor unions, sued over the matter.

Two “insiders” have recently warned that Musk could easily use this information to identify transgender Americans for government persecution.

What is known right now, though, is that DOGE’s drastic cuts to the SSA have led to website crashes, hours-long customer service wait times, entire teams being pushed out, and millions of terrified Americans.

“What’s going on is the destruction of the agency from the inside out, and it’s accelerating,” Sen. Angus King (I-ME) told the Post. “I have people approaching me all the time in their 70s and 80s, and they’re beside themselves. They don’t know what’s coming.”

“What they’re doing now is unconscionable,” he added.

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