At a White House ceremony, the president and Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano repeatedly recited already debunked myths about the Social Security Administration’s customer service and benefits fraud.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday that 275,000 illegal immigrants have been purged from the Social Security rolls on his watch. “To protect our benefits, we’ve already kicked nearly 275,000 illegal aliens off of the Social Security system,” Trump said in the Oval Office with Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano looking on.

The notion of privatizing Social Security surfaced most recently when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this month said new tax-deferred investment accounts dubbed “Trump accounts” may serve as a “backdoor to privatization,” though Treasury has walked back those comments.