Donald Trump's purge of the federal workforce could cause a system failure at the Social Security Administration, the agency's former leader warned.

Millions of Americans could soon feel the impact of the deep staffing cuts being planned at the Social Security Administration, which is undergoing a massive reorganization that the acting commissioner has acknowledged is being steered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

A former SSA commissioner says system outages have occurred because of DOGE's cuts, suggesting a collapse could be imminent.

Ex-commissioner and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said in a recent interview with CNBC that staff cuts and other changes made by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will likely lead to an interruption of benefits for the over 72.5 million Americans who get monthly checks.

“This is going to lead to total system collapse,” O’Malley told The Baltimore Sun. “It’s a very old, fragile computer system in (COBOL) language, which isn’t even in schools anymore.” In a social media post made Friday, O’Malley went on to say he expects benefit interruptions to start soon.