Congress is now in recess for the next two weeks, which means we might not see a Republican Representative in public until May. It's like a late Groundhog Day, but this time they hide their faces when they don't do their jobs. 

Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to our #TrumpCheck series, the LACDP's weekly newsletter that holds the Trump administration accountable for its lies, deception, and self-serving actions.

An underlying protection as an American citizen is the promise of Social Security payments later in life. Social Security is a 90-year-old institution of the United States, created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a part of the New Deal in 1935. Since the Great Depression, Americans have supported our most vulnerable citizens with taxes on workers to fund payments to retirees and disabled individuals. 

With the highest approval rating of any welfare program in the United States, the Social Security Administration is a wildly popular part of American life, with a higher approval rating than Trump has ever achieved in the United States. Trump and his cronies have had their eye on Social Security for a long time, and have implemented early signs of dismantling the program. We are here to set the record straight on Trump's lies and secrets about Social Security. 

• During an interview in March on Fox News, Donald Trump claimed clearly that "I'm not going to touch Social Security," a position in line with his messaging on the campaign trail. 

FACT: Cuts have already been made to Social Security offices all over the nation. Over 7,000 employees have been fired. Field offices are being shuttered, while simultaneously demanding that beneficiaries come in-person to claim benefits they have been claiming online for years, creating disastrous wait times. 

• The Social Security Agency has stated that the cuts and changes to the agency are being done to "prioritize customer service". 

FACT: Cuts to funding are impacting operations, causing staffing shortages that have left remaining Social Security service offices to look like a "Depression-era scene," with hundreds of senior citizens waiting for hours, or being turned away. Offices are unable to purchase paper, pens, or phone headsets due to DOGE cuts, creating 6 hour hold times when trying to get help over the phone. 

• Elon Musk referred to Social Security as the '"biggest Ponzi scheme of all time" and referred to Social Security benefits as "waste and fraud". 

FACT: Nearly 70% of American adults say they will need to rely on Social Security benefits in their retirement. The impacts of the recent cuts have threatened the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Americans. 

Trump and Musk have always been rich. They have no idea, and they never will understand, what it is like to live on a fixed income. They do not care about the havoc that they wreak by creating these problems for everyday Americans, who have worked to earn the protection of Social Security payments. The first step in fighting back against the Trump administration is setting the record straight; correcting misinformation is a job for us all. If you had this email forwarded to you, you can sign up for the #TrumpCheck newsletter here. 

We'll be back at defending the truth next week. Until then, stay tuned on our social media channels, linked below for information about the LACDP's fight against Trump.

In Solidarity,  

Team LACDP   

Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to our #TrumpCheck series, the LACDP's weekly newsletter that holds the Trump administration accountable for its lies, deception, and self-serving actions.

Today, we had planned to write a detailed rundown of the lies about the global 'reciprocal tariffs' that have been cast all over the world, including on an island of penguins and seals. However, in light of the 90-day pause on the tariffs, for all countries but China, we decided to shift gears. Thank goodness for the penguins and seals. 

Due to this last-minute shift, we decided to go back to basics, covering some of the lies that Trump has spread to the American public about the cost of living, and his efforts to combat rising prices. 

• While addressing the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner earlier this week, Donald Trump said that "gas prices are way down," that prices are "$2.50, $2.60, $2.75."

FACT: According to AAA, average gas prices nationally have not gone below $3.00 since Donald Trump took office. In fact, on both the day he claimed that gas prices "are way down" and today, the cost of gas was higher nationally ($3.24, and $3.235, respectively) than it was the day he took office in January ($3.12). 

• In a March 17th press release, the White House claimed that "On January 21, 2025, the wholesale price for eggs was $6.55/dozen; today, it’s $3.45/dozen — a $3.10/dozen (–47.3%) decrease"

FACT: The data linked on the press release does not support these claims, and no available data supports this claim about the cost of eggs. In fact, detailed 3rd-party tracking of grocery costs nationwide by NBC found that the average cost of eggs has not dipped below $5.00 per dozen this year. 

And finally...

• Donald Trump mused on how quaint and 'old-fashioned' the term 'groceries' is. "Groceries. It sort of says a bag with different things in it"

FACT: Donald's previous comment on grocery stores, citing that individuals need ID to buy cereal, or pick up apples from the refrigerator, indicates he hasn't even been to a grocery store. 

We live in a world of pivots - sometimes you plan on covering tariffs, and end up covering eggs. That's how it goes in the second Trump era. For us to fight back and re-establish a country in which we all can afford to fuel our cars and homes and feed our families, we need your help. Correcting misinformation about the state of the world and the actions of the administration is a task for us all. If you had this email forwarded to you, you can sign up for the #TrumpCheck newsletter here. 

We'll be back at defending the truth next week. Until then, stay tuned on our social media channels, linked below for information about the LACDP's fight against Trump.

In Solidarity,  

Team LACDP

With the start of April, brings the beginning of the second quarter of the year; who knows how we're only 25% into 2025. 

Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to our #TrumpCheck series, the LACDP's weekly newsletter that holds the Trump administration accountable for its lies, deception, and self-serving actions.

Mass deportations of immigrants has always been a campaign promise of the Trump administration, racist policy that masquerades as 'securing the border.' Family detention centers are a shame of American history from Trump's first term, a nearly universally condemned practice of ripping children from their mothers and fathers with no way to track whose child is whose. In 2024, the Trump campaign promised to bring back intolerance of immigrants and they have done their best to deliver on that promise. I'm sure that Trump's largest campaign donor, who started his career in the U.S. as an immigrant from South Africa working illegally, or First Lady Melania Trump, who herself violated immigration law before she obtained her green card in 2001, see no irony in their support of making the immigration system more dangerous and difficult. 

Read on for some of the lies that the Trump administration has spread about the practice of deportations in the United States. 

• In January, Trump announced that Guantanamo Bay would be operating as a detention facility for undocumented immigrants, housing over 30,000 migrants. 

FACT: Fewer than 400 detainees were sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2025 - more than half were sent back to the U.S. mainland, and less than 90 remain in custody at the base in Cuba today. The estimated cost of this stunt is over $40 million. Officials and departments who would be responsible for the operation were just as surprised as the public was when the announcement declaring Guantanamo Bay as a detention center was announced; none of the agencies involved had been notified of Trump's plan before the Executive Order. 

• Donald Trump repeatedly promised to deport 'criminal aliens' as a basis of his campaign. 

FACT: Deportations have not been limited to only undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds; green card holders and immigrants with protected status have been deported, sometimes to countries they have never been before. This includes a Maryland father with protected status who was sent to a Salvadoran prison due to an "administrative error."

• The White House announced a new app for 'illegal aliens' to 'self-deport voluntarily,' in a way that will allow them to file for citizenship later and return "legally in the future and live the American dream."

FACT: Immigrants rights attorneys are warning people to not use the app. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) bans those who remained in the U.S. for more than a year from returning for more than 10 years; there is no evidence that the administration will support a path to citizenship for those who report their self-deportations. 

The inhumane treatment of immigrants who are in the custody of the American government is unconscionable and unacceptable. The first step to fighting against it is spreading the truth about what is really happening to our immigrant neighbors. If you had this email forwarded to you, you can sign up for the #TrumpCheck newsletter here. 

We'll be back at defending the truth next week. Until then, stay tuned on our social media channels, linked below for information about the LACDP's fight against Trump.

In Solidarity,  

Team LACDP