King Charles Just Revealed the Meaningful Coronation Gift He Received from President Biden
Per Buckingham Palace, the U.S. couple gifted King Charles a 'leather folder containing printed letters between Queen Elizabeth II and President Eisenhower inviting him to the United Kingdom, with a photograph of the visit.' Details of the thoughtful present were revealed by the Palace today as it made public official gifts received by members of the royal family between 2020 and 2023.
President Eisenhower hosted Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at the White House during their first State visit to the US in 1957. His return visit to the UK, along with First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, in 1959 was notable as to date it remains the only time a U.S. President has been hosted at Balmoral Castle. That could change if President Trump meets King Charles at the Scottish castle later this year.
No details of what were in the letters was shared by Buckingham Palace today. However, a letter from Queen Elizabeth to President Eisenhower after the visit has previously been made public. In it, she sent him a recipe for drop scones which she said she had promised she would do so following his stay at the castle.
Other gifts received by the royal family from President Biden were also revealed today. In July 2023, when King Charles welcomed President Biden to Windsor Castle, the President brought cufflinks and a jar of honey from the White House gardens. In June 2021, when Queen Elizabeth welcomed President Biden and the First Lady to Windsor Castle, they brought an engraved specially commissioned Tiffany sterling silver box and a floral brooch.
The extensive list of gifts received by King Charles for his coronation included a Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II from the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and his and hers perfumes called Charles R and Camilla R from J. Floris Limited.
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Politico
32 minutes ago
- Politico
It's Trump's economy now
Presented by With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco Good Sunday morning. It's Zack Stanton. Get in touch. THE CONVERSATION: Within days of her election in November, Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), faced backlash from some House Republicans for being transgender. In the face of those attacks, McBride has sought ways to forge ties across the aisle, animated partly by her hope of bringing 'a sense of kindness and grace' to Congress despite the 'reality TV show nature' of today's politics, she tells Playbook's Dasha Burns on today's episode of 'The Conversation.' Listen in: The two also discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, how the Democratic Party can rebuild its coalition without 'reinforcing right-wing framing' over 'culture war' issues and why her pursuit of bipartisan legislation is in part a direct response to President Donald Trump. Watch the full episode … Subscribe to 'The Conversation' on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify DRIVING THE DAY WELCOME TO THE VIBE SHIFT: For months, Trump has boasted that under his leadership, America is the 'hottest' country in the world. (He repeated that claim overnight in a social media post at 1:49 a.m.) Now, he's at risk of being burned by those expectations. On Wednesday, new GDP numbers showed that in the first half of the year, the economy grew at an annual rate of less than 1.3 percent. On Thursday, new inflation numbers showed that the personal consumption expenditures price index jumped by 2.6 percent in the year ending in June — an acceleration of the inflation rate from April. On Friday, the new jobs report showed that net hiring has 'plummeted over the past three months with job gains of just 73,000 in July, 14,000 in June and 19,000 in May,' in the words of the AP. And behind those topline numbers was a striking datapoint, the WSJ's Te-Ping Chen and Harriet Torry note: 'The number of people unemployed for at least 27 weeks topped 1.8 million, the highest level since 2017, not counting the pandemic's unemployment surge.' This morning, it's clear that a new consensus is emerging: For all the talk of a new 'Golden Age,' there are abundant signs that the economy, while at times glittering, may not be gold. Simply put: 'Job gains are dwindling. Inflation is ticking upward. Growth has slowed compared with last year,' AP's Josh Boak and Christopher Rugaber write. '[T]his is not the boom the Republican president promised, and his ability to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any economic challenges has faded as the world economy hangs on his every word and social media post.' Indeed, nearly 200 days into his second term, even members of Trump's administration are signaling that the window during which Biden could be blamed has now passed. The 'Trump economy has arrived,' Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Wednesday. 'Biden's first quarter is behind us, and growth is already accelerating.' Trump has made himself central to the economy. 'After campaigning on a pledge to free business from worrying about Washington's dictates, Trump has made public policy — and his own norm-busting behavior — the primary variables affecting the $30 trillion U.S. economy, economists said,' WaPo's David Lynch and Abha Bhattarai report. Washington, they write, is now 'the focus of business and investment decision-making.' That's unlikely to change anytime soon. Among the reasons why, two loom large: the coming economic impact of Trump's tariffs, and new concerns about the reliability of government economic statistics going forward. ON THE TARIFFS: 'Companies are starting to shift more tariff-related costs onto consumers,' NYT's Sydney Ember reports in an A1 story this morning. 'Many businesses chose to absorb the additional tax during the early days of President Trump's trade war. But evidence is emerging that they are running out of options to keep prices stable in the face of deteriorating profit margins, suggesting that the tariffs could have a more pronounced effect on prices in the months ahead.' Yes, the inflationary effects of Trump's tariffs have been muted thus far. But economists 'cite several reasons for that limited impact,' Ember writes. 'Companies across the country raced to stockpile goods before any tariffs kicked in, giving them a significant cushion before they had to import goods subject to higher levies. Many businesses, big and small, were reluctant to pass along higher costs to their inflation-weary customers without more clarity on where the tariffs would settle.' A new economic divide: Now that the policy is settling into place, a 'divide is widening in the US economy as the biggest banks and technology groups shrug off Donald Trump's tariffs to post huge earnings gains while consumer-facing companies struggle with rising costs,' FT's George Steer writes this morning. Stat of the day: In total, 52 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have posted Q2 results reported declining profit margins, FT reports, citing Société Générale, a financial services company based in France. Companies reported margin pressure even as their sales rose, which suggests 'that their costs are going up but that companies aren't yet passing this on' to consumers, Andrew Lapthorne, the firm's head of quantitative research, told the FT. ON THE DATA: On Friday, Trump ordered his team to fire Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after the jobs report showed weaker numbers than expected for July and downgraded the May and June figures. That's igniting 'worries that Trump's volatile temperament could cause additional economic harm by undermining market confidence in the government data that investors, business executives and policymakers require to make decisions,' WaPo's Lynch and Bhattarai write. 'If policymakers and the public can't trust the data — or suspect the data are being manipulated — confidence collapses and reasonable economic decision-making becomes impossible,' Heidi Shierholz, the president of the center-left Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist of the Labor Department, told the Post. 'It's like trying to drive a car blindfolded.' SUNDAY BEST … — U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the new tariffs and future trade deals, on CBS' 'Face the Nation': 'These tariff rates are pretty much set. I expect I do have my phone blowing up. There are trade ministers who want to talk more and see how they can work in a different way with the United States, but I think that we have, we're seeing truly the contours of the president's tariff plan right now with these rates.' — National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on the jobs numbers on 'Fox News Sunday': 'When the data are unreliable, when they keep being revised all over the place, then there are going to be people that wonder if there's a partisan pattern in the data. … And so, I think what we need is a fresh set of eyes at the [Bureau of Labor Statistics], somebody who can clean this thing up.' — Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) on the firing of the head of the BLS, on NBC's 'Meet the Press': 'That's what confirmation hearings are supposed to be about, is it going to be somebody that will maintain the independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, like so many other departments and agencies that need to have the independence from political pressure of the White House to do their job reliably? Or will this be another yes person for the president that's going to be more interested in propaganda than statistics, more interested in propaganda than the facts?' — Doctors Without Borders USA CEO Avril Benoît on the starvation in Gaza on ABC's 'This Week': 'We need to flood the zone with as much food as possible. The problem with the [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] is, of course, it's unsafe. It's an inefficient way to deliver aid. People have to cross very unsafe zones to reach those areas that are controlled by the IDF and military contractors from the U.S., and then there are insufficient quantities.' TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week's must-read opinion pieces. 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. RECESS BEGINS: Senators left Washington yesterday to begin their long-awaited August recess. Republicans left without locking in a deal to confirm dozens of nominations that Trump has put forward, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune has vowed to return in the fall to clear the deck after Trump privately told Republicans to go home and cut negotiations with Democrats, POLITICO's Jordain Carney reports. The U-turn: Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had a path forward on the floor (which hadn't been formalized) that would have exchanged a tranche of confirmations for the release of withheld NIH and foreign aid funding, Jordain writes. That came after Republicans seemed adamant on Saturday about getting the nominations resolved this weekend, whether by cutting a deal, changing the confirmation rules or by adjourning to allow recess appointments. The Trump of it all: 'The president is fed up,' Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said. Trump manned the phones yesterday for conversations with some key GOP senators, and late last night he blasted Schumer for 'political extortion' on Truth Social and urged all Republicans to head out. Thune teed up seven final nominees for confirmation votes last night before moving on to recess. Among the newly confirmed: Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host, now formally the U.S. attorney for D.C. following a 50-45 vote. What Thune is thinking: He's already preparing for the possibility of speeding up the process with a rules change come September. 'I think they're desperately in need of change,' Thune said, per AP's Mary Clare Jalonick and Joey Cappelletti. 'I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations is broken. And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.' What Schumer is thinking: He defended the Democrats' response, saying 'historically bad nominees deserve historic levels of scrutiny.' Still in limbo: The nominations of Mike Waltz as UN ambassador and Kimberly Guilfoyle for U.S. ambassador to Greece, CBS' Cristina Corujo notes. It's still unclear if the Senate will take up nominations as soon as they come back on Sept. 2, or if they'll wait until after the shutdown deadline. 2. PROMISES BROKEN?: 'White House has no plan to mandate IVF care, despite campaign pledge,' by WaPo's Riley Beggin and Jeff Stein: 'The White House does not plan to require health insurers to provide coverage for in vitro fertilization services, two people with knowledge of internal discussions said … In addition, White House officials are backing away from proposals discussed internally to mandate IVF coverage for the roughly 50 million people on the Obamacare exchanges … It is unclear whether the administration plans to ask lawmakers to take up a bill, but the two people said that forcing insurance companies to cover IVF is not currently on the table.' 3. TRADING PLACES: India will continue purchasing Russian oil even as Trump threatens penalties, Reuters' Shivam Patel and Chandni Shah report. Trump said Friday that he was told India would stop the trade with Russia. But sources in India's government said no policy changes have been made. It's the latest instance of an increasingly sour relationship between the U.S. and India, one tied not just to trade, but also Trump's claimed credit over the end of India's brief conflict with Pakistan, WSJ's Alex Ward and colleagues write. On the tariffs: As the final deals in Trump's trade war emerge, Myanmar is still optimistic it can come to an agreement with the U.S. that would decrease its new 40 percent tariff levels, per Bloomberg's Khine Lin Kyaw. But in Switzerland, investors are bracing themselves for the market's reopening tomorrow after Trump's 39 percent tariff announcement came during Swiss National Day, Bloomberg's Gary Parkinson and colleagues report. Elsewhere on the economy: Though Washington has increasingly come down on electric vehicles, they're not going anywhere, writes NYT's Jack Ewing, as the cars become cheaper and tariff resilient. … Fed officials say the U.S. labor market is still solid despite the July jobs report, WSJ's Nick Timiraos scooped. … As Fed Governor Adriana Kugler announced her resignation on Friday, Trump now has an opportunity to install someone at the Fed to push for interest rate cuts, Bloomberg's Christopher Condon and Amara Omeokwe report. 4. THE CRISIS IN GAZA: Special envoy Steve Witkoff told the families of Israeli hostages yesterday that the U.S. has a plan to bring home all of the remaining hostages in a deal with Hamas that could soon end the war, WaPo's Gerry Shih reports from Jerusalem. Trump 'now believes that everybody should come home at once, no piecemeal deals. That doesn't work and we've tried everything,' Witkoff said. He added that Hamas was ready to disarm itself, which the group denied. Not a moment too soon: The starvation and struggle over aid continues to ravage the Gaza strip. Hundreds of thousands of people are overrunning aid convoys out of desperation for access to food, WaPo reports. Though the Trump administration claims it has given over $60 million in aid to Gaza, the State Department has only pledged half that amount and only a fraction has been issued in Gaza so far, per WaPo's Karen DeYoung. More on the starvation in Gaza from the NYT Back in Washington: Pro-Israel Democrats are increasingly publicly breaking with PM Benjamin Netanyahu and circulating a letter in the House to potentially recognize a Palestinian state, CNN's Isaac Dovere reports. Related read: 'Mike Huckabee, Israel's Passionate Defender as Gaza War Drives Allies Away,' by NYT's Elisabeth Bumiller 5. IMMIGRATION FILES: DOJ is walking back Stephen Miller's touted goal of 3,000 ICE arrests per day, as the Trump administration told federal judges last week that this quota doesn't exist, POLITICO's Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein write. That figure has emerged in multiple lawsuits over the administration's deportation drive, and its denial is the 'latest example of a gulf between what White House advisers say in public and what the Justice Department says in court.' It also comes as an appeals court on Friday upheld the block on the seemingly indiscriminate immigration raids in Los Angeles. Dade County, all day: Billionaire Michael Fernández is behind the new ads in Miami blasting its representatives in Congress over the mass deportations of immigrants, telling NYT's Patricia Mazzei that he hopes to 'wake up the conscience' of Miami's Cuban GOP voters. … But Latino representatives in Congress, including Miami's own Cuban Republicans, are already concerned Trump's deportations could backfire with Latino voters, WaPo's Marianna Sotomayor writes. Deep in the heart: 'Trump's Border Wall Is Back—and So Is His Fight With Texas Landowners,' by WSJ's Elizabeth Findell 6. FROM THE WILDERNESS: New campaign finance filings reveal some Democrats are already revving themselves up for 2028, with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg raising $1.6 million with his PAC and some Democratic governors raising hundreds of thousands as well, POLITICO's Jessica Piper and Elena Schneider report. … Kamala Harris told Stephen Colbert she doesn't 'want to go back in the system' right now, and some Democrats are hoping she doesn't in 2028 either, POLITICO's Dustin Gardiner and colleagues write. … Democrats are increasingly turning to veterans across the country, NYT's Shane Goldmacher reports, as the party tries to shift away from its currently unpopular branding. Survey says: Democratic voters see their party as 'weak' or 'ineffective,' with one-third describing the party negatively in a new AP-NORC poll, per AP's Steve Peoples and colleagues. 7. A HOMECOMING FOR WILES: White House chief of staff Susie Wiles returned to her home state of Florida on Saturday night to receive the 'Statesman Award' from the Republican Party of Florida, Kimberly Leonard writes in to Playbook. Speaking before the Red Florida Dinner at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Wiles called her job 'a dream beyond anything I could ever have imagined,' adding: 'The golden age of America is here, because Donald Trump is in the White House.' The evening was a testament to how Wiles helped transform Florida from a purple to a red state in just a few election cycles — first with Rick Scott's 2010 campaign for governor, then for Gov. Ron DeSantis' first gubernatorial campaign in 2018. She also led Trump's Florida operation in 2016 and 2020 and ultimately led his 2024 comeback to the White House. Now, many Floridians she has worked with over the years are in the administration. 'Honestly, Floridians overpopulate the West Wing in a really big way,' Wiles said to applause. Wiles' band of loyalists heaped praise on her throughout the evening. Top Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio called the award 'long overdue.' Chris LaCivita praised Wiles as 'inarguably' the best in the field. Deputy chief of staff James Blair said Wiles 'deserves all the credit she gets and then some.' VP JD Vance delivered a surprise video greeting, crediting Wiles with keeping the White House 'on track and on schedule' while also being a 'ruthless political operator.' And Trump capped off the love fest in his own video message, saying he was unsure whether to call her a 'statesman' or 'stateswoman,' but concluding: 'You are the person of the year in my book.' 8. DEMOCRACY WATCH: DOJ is expanding its efforts to get access to voter data and election information, sending letters and emails and phone calls to get copies of voter registration lists in at least 15 states, AP's Ali Swenson and Gary Fields report. That includes 'all records' from the 2024 election and any records retained from 2020, and it's raising red flags with some state officials. In one instance in Colorado, consultant Jeff Small asked Republican officials if they would give a third party access to election information, and that he was acting on a request from Stephen Miller, per CNN's Fredreka Schouten. 9. RETRIBUTION CORNER: 'Agency Scrutinizes Jack Smith After Republican Complaint,' by NYT's Devlin Barrett: 'An agency that scrutinizes the conduct of federal employees has opened an investigation into Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Donald J. Trump before he returned to office … The Office of Special Counsel confirmed on Saturday that it had opened an investigation into Mr. Smith for a possible violation of the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits federal workers from using their government jobs to engage in political activity. … Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, had asked the agency to investigate.' TALK OF THE TOWN PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — 'Smithsonian to restore Trump to impeachment exhibit 'in the coming weeks,'' by WaPo's Jonathan Fischer and Samantha Chery: 'The Smithsonian said on Saturday that it would restore information about President Donald Trump's two impeachments to an exhibit in the National Museum of American History within weeks.' SOUNDS LIKE VEEP — After Alan Dershowitz got into it with a farmer's market vendor on Martha's Vineyard who refused to sell him a pierogi, Crooked Media's Matt Berg published the corresponding police report. The highlight: 'Dershowitz stated he was going to spread the word to others at the market to not buy from the pierogi booth,' the report reads. At a nearby lemonade stand, a cop warned him not to. It concludes: 'Shortly after, the lawyer departed, pierogiless.' FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — K STREET FILES: AECOM, the giant infrastructure firm the White House picked to lead the engineering team for the construction of the $200 million White House ballroom being built with private money, is registered with Ballard Partners, the powerhouse lobbying firm with ties to chief of staff Susie Wiles, POLITICO's Daniel Lippman writes in. AECOM has paid Ballard Partners $120,000 to lobby the White House and Congress this year, according to lobbying records. The firm run by Brian Ballard, a top Trump fundraiser, registered for AECOM a week after the election. The initial listing said it was lobbying Congress and the State Department, but in the second quarter it added the White House. Wiles told Playbook in an email that she has never represented AECOM, adding she didn't 'know how they were selected, but I was never lobbied about any of the contractors or involved in any way.' Ballard declined to comment. Spokespeople for AECOM didn't respond to a request for comment. AECOM has received numerous federal contracts since the start of the Trump administration, including an Air Force contract worth up to $1.5 billion and at least two major contracts from the Army Corps of Engineers. A White House official pointed Playbook to data showing AECOM has also been a major contractor for the government during Democratic administrations and that two-thirds of AECOM's contributions in the 2024 cycle went to Democrats. Wiles worked for Ballard from 2011 to 2019, helping open up its D.C. office. Stories about the firm often include the fact that he used to employ Wiles. AG Pam Bondi also is an alum of the firm. Ballard Partners has risen to the top of the K Street ranks in the months since Trump's reelection. Speaking of the ballroom: 'Experts Raise Concerns Over Trump's White House Ballroom Renovation Plans,' by NYT's Ashley Ahn HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) … Reps. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) and Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.) … Bernadette Meehan (5-0) … KFF Health News' Rachana Pradhan … Matthew Foldi … ABC's Ben Siegel and John Parkinson … Scott Parkinson … Claire Olszewski of the Obama Foundation … Jeff Dressler of SoftBank … Tom Freedman … Matt Compton … former Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) … Jordan Burke … Erikka Knuti … Katherine Robertson of Alabama AG Steve Marshall's office … Graham MacGillivray … Jessica Ennis Kitelyn … Brian Morgenstern … City Journal's Brian Anderson … Dow Jones' Clarissa Matthews … Joe Ramallo of Sen. Bill Cassidy's (R-La.) office … Jay Caruso … Rachael Shackelford Dussuau … Reuters' Brad Brooks … Ken Nahigian … DNC's Emma Bailey … James Wegmann of Stand Together … Jacob Weisberg of Pushkin Industries … Andrew Craft … POLITICO's Jasmine Turner and Bemi Ukuedojor … Dmitri Mehlhorn … Sydney Hilbush of Rep. John Garamendi's (D-Calif.) office Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Buzz Feed
5 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
I Tried The Skin-Renewing SPF Dua Lipa Takes On Holiday – And My Skin's Never Been Happier
We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, HuffPost UK may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI — prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication. As a pale, ginger Scottish person, if there's one thing that's a complete and utter non-negotiable in my skin care routine, it's a brilliant SPF. The problem is though, not all sunscreens and suncreams are created equally. Some feel greasy and seep through your make-up, others clog your pores and result in a summer of pimples that just won't quit. And then, god forbid, you accidentally buy an SPF that isn't sweat proof and you end up with a burn. If there's one person I'll trust the judgement of, however, when it comes to holiday skin care (although we should be wearing SPF all year round people!), it's the queen of vacationing herself, Dua Lipa. And fortunately, on her recent trip to Sicily, the New Rules singer gave us a glimpse of her holiday essentials – with one notable skincare product making the cut. In the background of a holiday snap of an Aperol spritz shared to Instagram, we can see Dua has been using Augustinus Bader's new SPF product, The Suncreen SPF 50. I've written before about the wonder brand that is Augustinus Bader – the skin care company whose products Dua Lipa has reported that she 'can't live without', so much so that their Eye Patches and The Rich Cream have a permanent place in her handbag. It's no surprise then that the singer has opted for the brand's latest product as her preferred sun protection. The brand has a serious celebrity fanbase – Victoria Beckham, recently collaborated with them on her own skincare line and concealer. Alexa Chung and Margot Robbie are fans of the skincare's patented TFC8® technology too – a proprietary blend of natural amino acids, high-grade vitamins and peptides that supports the body's capacity to renew. So naturally, if it's good enough for that list of stars, I was willing to try it out. The lightweight broad-spectrum sunscreen is non-greasy and fast absorbing – a welcome escape from other sticky formulas. Given that the brand markets their SPF as suncare meets skincare, it promises to protect you from UVA and UVB ray s as well as renewing your skin at the same time – both of which I found super effectively when I tried it out for myself. From having tried out (and now permanently using) Augustinus Bader's award-winning Rich Cream, I know that my skin drinks up their TFC8 blend and looks better for it – and The Sunscreen had the exact same effect. My skin looks lifted, fresher and I feel great about going make up free – and most importantly, there's no chance of my face getting burnt. I'm lazy at the best of times when it comes to my skincare routine, so having a product that does the work of a serum, a moisturiser and an SPF all in one is my kind of product. When I do wear foundation over the SPF, the sunscreen doesn't seep through – leaving my base looking flawless (if I do say so myself x) all day. Although the product comes with a hefty price tag, what I will say for The Suncreen is that a little goes a LONG way and for all the celeb hype surrounding Augustinus Bader, it certainly lives up to it!
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Social Security Is Owed Tens of Billions of Dollars, and the Donald Trump Administration Aims to Collect. Will Your Benefit Be Garnished?
Key Points President Donald Trump has been the catalyst for a number of changes to America's leading retirement program during his second term. His administration has overseen the reversal of a Biden-era policy on Social Security overpayments, resulting in a more aggressive 50% clawback rate. Overpaid beneficiaries have a trio of options at their disposal to potentially waive their liability or meaningfully reduce what they owe. The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook › For most retirees, their Social Security income is indispensable. When surveyed by national pollster Gallup in April, 86% of retirees said that their monthly check is a "major" or "minor" income source. In other words, it's a necessity, to some varied degree, to make ends meet. However, this all-important retirement program isn't on the best financial footing. Based on the latest Social Security Board of Trustees Report, the program is staring down a $25.1 trillion long-term (75-year) funding deficit, as well as the prospect of sweeping benefit cuts coming into play just eight years from now. If nothing is done, retired workers and survivor beneficiaries can see their monthly payouts slashed by up to 23% in 2033. President Trump has overseen a flurry of Social Security changes since taking office Although politicians often shy away from tackling issues with Social Security since it can cost them votes in upcoming elections, President Donald Trump's administration hasn't veered away from making big changes to America's top retirement program. Since beginning his second (nonconsecutive) term, Trump signed an executive order eliminating paper checks by Sept. 30, 2025. All federal distributions will need to be digitized (e.g., through direct deposit) in order to save costs, as well as reduce the possibility of fraud. And the president has overseen the revamp of personal identification methods via the Social Security Administration (SSA). For example, changing your direct deposit information (with few exceptions) will require an in-person visit to the SSA or two-factor authentication via a "my Social Security" account. Furthermore, Trump is responsible for the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which preempted the SSA to announce a reduction of 7,000 employees and the shuttering of some of its offices. These actions fit with the Trump administration's theme of reining in federal costs and making Capitol Hill more efficient. But this isn't all. Making Washington, D.C., more efficient includes Social Security's trust funds, and not just the program's administrative expenses. America's leading retirement program is owed tens of billions of dollars -- and the Trump administration aims to collect. The question is: Are you one of the more than 1 million beneficiaries who could see their Social Security benefit garnished by the SSA? The Trump administration has placed a bull's-eye on Social Security overpayments If there's such a thing as a clear target for the SSA and Trump administration, it's collecting the $23 billion in Social Security overpayments that were outstanding at the end of fiscal 2023 (Sept. 30, 2023). According to data from health policy researcher KFF and Cox Media Group, nearly 2 million beneficiaries had been overpaid. Sometimes these overpayments are entirely the SSA's fault. Other times, responsibility lies with beneficiaries not updating their income information with the SSA, thereby resulting in an overpayment. Prior to the pandemic, the clawback rate on Social Security overpayments stood at 100%. This means President Trump's first term featured a 100% garnishment rate for Social Security checks until an overpayment was fully recouped. However, this garnishment rate was lowered to just 10% per benefit check during Joe Biden's presidency (which coincided with the pandemic). Although the SSA announced plans to reinstate the 100% clawback rate in March, public backlash caused the agency to rethink this strategy and amend its garnishment rate to 50% in April. With the SSA beginning to send out 90-day notices on April 25, overpayment garnishments for potentially more than 1 million beneficiaries began on July 24. If there's a silver lining for these folks, it's that legal options do exist that can potentially waive or reduce what they owe the SSA: SSA-632BK ("Request for Waiver of Overpayment Recovery"): The best outcome would be to have your overpayment from the SSA completely waived. Filing Form SSA-632BK makes sense if the overpayment you received wasn't your fault and you can provide documentation that paying back the extra benefits would cause a financial hardship. SSA-561 ("Request for Reconsideration"): Going this route makes sense if you can provide evidence that you weren't overpaid and want your liability waived. Form SSA-561 is also an option if you agree that you've been overpaid but are contesting how much in extra benefits you received. SSA-634 ("Request for Change in Overpayment Recovery Rate"): Filing Form SSA-634 is the way to go if you admit to being overpaid, but can demonstrate a financial hardship to the SSA with qualified expenses. In other words, you're still going to have to repay the extra benefits you've received, but this route may allow you to work out an extended payment plan that lowers the garnishment rate from 50% to a more palatable percentage. With the Biden-era recovery rate a thing of the past, more beneficiaries can expect a significant haircut to their monthly check if they don't opt for one of these three perfectly legal options to potentially waive or reduce what they owe. The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. One easy trick could pay you as much as $23,760 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Join Stock Advisor to learn more about these Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Social Security Is Owed Tens of Billions of Dollars, and the Donald Trump Administration Aims to Collect. Will Your Benefit Be Garnished? was originally published by The Motley Fool
