The new head of the Social Security Administration said he had no idea what the job entailed when the Trump administration tapped him for the position of Commissioner of Social Security.
Former Wall Street executive Frank Bisignano made that remark in a leaked audio tape of a meeting with agency managers from around the country Wednesday.
ABC News obtained a recording of the meeting, which has not been independently confirmed by Atlanta Black Star.
“So, I get a phone call and it’s about Social Security. And I’m really, I’m really not, I swear I’m not looking for a job. And I’m like, ‘Well, what am I going to do?’ So, I’m Googling Social Security. You know, one of my great skills, I’m one of the great Googlers on the East Coast,” Bisignano said on the tape.
“I’m like, ‘What the heck’s the commissioner of Social Security?’” he added.
A Social Security official told ABC news the new SSA chief is “working to transform the agency into a premier service” and that he was clearly “poking fun at himself so everyone in the room felt comfortable having an open conversation …”
Millions of Americans rely on social security for retirement income, disability and survivor benefits. Under the Trump administration, the agency has been thrown into disarray by significant staff cuts, shuttered local offices and website outages.
Bisignano said during the meeting that Social Security is safe and will continue. “This is America’s, you know, safety net — it’s not going away. And hopefully you hear me say this every day. You know who wants me to tell people that? Guess. The president.”
President Donald Trump promised during the 2024 campaign that Social Security benefits would remain intact if he won another term in office. But the agency is in turmoil. In the few short months since Trump returned, almost a half dozen people have helmed the office.
“I’ve gotten notes about, ‘Will the turmoil of the last five months end? Are you here to cause more turmoil?’” Bisignano said in the recording. “I don’t think it’s the turmoil of the past five months, although I will be the fifth since, you know, November, right?”
Bisignano tried to lighten the mood of the meeting. “Are we having fun yet? Are we OK?”
The new SSA chief also repeatedly criticized media leaks from inside the agency during the meeting, according to ABC. Although Bisignano has experience managing large companies, including complex payroll systems, he has no experience in government or with the Social Security Administration.
During his confirmation hearings this month before the Senate, Democrats repeatedly brought up comments Bisignano has made about being “fundamentally a DOGE person.” The so-called Department of Government Efficiency was led at one point by billionaire Trump donor and SpaceX head Elon Musk.
In a controversial move under Musk, the DOGE team accessed sensitive data on millions of Americans as they focused on finding “waste, fraud, and abuse” at the agency. DOGE has presented little proof of fraud or abuse and has not been transparent about the moves it has made at the agency.
Bisignano, formerly the chairman and CEO of Fiserv Inc., a financial tech company, tried to distance himself from DOGE during his confirmation, but one Democrat cited a whistleblower statement claiming Bisignano personally asked DOGE to intervene at the SSA.
A White House spokesperson told ABC News, “Commissioner Bisignano brings a valuable and much-needed outside perspective to the Social Security Administration. Commissioner Bisignano’s proven success in the financial services industry uniquely positions him to lead the Trump Administration’s commonsense efforts to modernize the agency and improve its efficiency.”
Bisignano was confirmed earlier this month by the Senate’s Republican majority on a party-line vote.
