Trump Amplifies IRS Chief’s Claim of $99M in Payments to Dead People Halted
Trump shares a report crediting IRS chief Frank Bisignano with stopping $99 million in payments to deceased recipients, spotlighting his fraud-prevention drive.
WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald J. Trump amplified a claim that the head of the Internal Revenue Service stopped $99 million in payments to dead people.
The post pointed to a report crediting Frank J. Bisignano, the chief executive officer of the IRS and commissioner of the Social Security Administration, with halting the improper disbursements. The figure and the framing came from the article Trump shared, not from an independent audit.
“IRS Chief Bisignano Touts $99M in Payments Stopped,” the shared headline said, according to realclearpolitics.com.
The move signals continued White House emphasis on rooting out waste and fraud across federal benefit programs, a theme central to the administration’s government-reform agenda.
Here is the full post on truthsocial: “IRS Chief Bisignano Touts $99M in Payments Stopped: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/07/22/irs_chief_says_99m_in_payments_to_dead_people_stopped_154359.html” on July 28, 2026 at 9:33 AM ET.
This is the first message released by Trump today. On average, Trump produces 18 posts per day since his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
The move fits a broader pattern in Trump’s recent messaging, with 21 of his 467 posts over the last 30 days focused on reposts and external links.
Bisignano holds a rare dual appointment at the top of two of the government’s largest disbursing agencies. He assumed the Social Security Administration post in May 2025 and became the first chief executive officer of the IRS in October 2025, a position that had not existed before, according to wikipedia.org. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, then acting commissioner of internal revenue, installed him in the new role, according to treasury.gov.
Before entering government, Bisignano built a four-decade career in banking and payments. He served as chief administrative officer at Citigroup Inc.and later at JPMorgan Chase & Co., then ran First Data before becoming chief executiv e ofFiserv, Inc., a payments-processing giant, according to wikipedia.org. That resume in transaction systems frames the administration’s pitch that a technologist can tighten controls on federal payment pipelines.
Improper payments to deceased beneficiaries remain a recurring drain on federal accounts. Government reviews have repeatedly flagged tens of billions of dollars in improper federal payments each year, spanning benefit and tax programs, according to brookings.edu. Efforts to reconcile death records with payment rolls have long been cited as a fix, according to plainlanguagetax.com.
For the average taxpayer, the claim touches money that funds public services and refunds. Stopping payments that never should have gone out reduces losses that ultimately fall on the federal budget, though the reported $99 million is a fraction of total improper outlays measured annually.
This has happened before. Administrations of both parties have promised crackdowns on payments to the dead, and inspectors general have issued reports on the problem for years, according to brookings.edu. The recurring nature of the issue underscores why fresh figures draw political attention.
The next word on the effort would come from the IRS and the Social Security Administration, which publish improper-payment data in agency reports. A date for the next official release tied to this specific claim has not been announced.
Efforts to purge improper federal payments predate this moment, as happened before. Congress passed the Improper Payments Information Act in 2002 to force agencies to measure and report faulty disbursements, and lawmakers expanded the mandate in 2010 and again in 2019, according to treasury.gov. Death-record matching became a focal point after audits tied billions of dollars to payments sent to deceased individuals over the years, according to brookings.edu. Officials who championed those reconciliation drives found the problem stubborn, with improper payments persisting despite repeated legislative fixes.
Assigned topic: Reposts & External Links.
This is Trump’s 1st Truth Social post today, out of 1 total today.
On average, Trump produces 18 posts per day since his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
Trump’s last post was 11 hours ago.
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