Memo to President Trump and Elon Musk:
If you keep messing with Social Security, Seal Beach Leisure World is coming for you.
Members of two groups, Seniors for Peace and the Democratic Club, gathered Tuesday outside a clubhouse on the 500-acre property to plan a weekend demonstration and distribute flyers that warned:
“Hands Off Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid!”
Most of the 15 rabble-rousers, ranging in age from 60s to 80s, raised a hand when I asked if their monthly budgets rely heavily on Social Security checks. And they’re ticked off that Musk, a gazillionaire, has called Social Security a ponzi scheme and orchestrated the elimination of thousands of jobs in the agency.
But is a there a genuine threat to the preservation of a sacred, 90-year-old American promise, given majority support for entitlement programs across party lines?
“Yes, it’s absolutely real,” Dan Larkin said. “Right now we don’t have but one branch of government, and that’s the executive branch. [Trump is] able to do whatever he wants with impunity. … It’s terrifying.”
“It’s our money,” said Shel Magnuson, noting that employees contribute to Social Security through payroll deductions during their working years.
William Bruce, center in a blue shirt, talks to fellow members of Seniors for Peace and the Democratic Club in Leisure World Seal Beach.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“I’ve been paying in since I was a kid,” Larkin added.
Ray Olsowka, who plans to demonstrate Saturday under the big Leisure World globe at the main gate on Seal Beach Boulevard, said he had an idea for a protest sign directed at Musk, DOGE’s rabid Doberman and SpaceX founder.
“Please Fly to Mars.”
As you might have imagined, not every one of the more than 9,000 residents of the 55-and-older community is lining up against Trump and Musk, although one resident cruises the grounds in a golf cart that sports a big laminated sign that lists the “Early Warning Signs of Fascism.”
Roughly one-third are registered Republicans, one-third are Democrats and one-third have no party affiliation, according to William Bruce, president of the Democratic Club.
“There’s a lot of MAGA here,” said Pamela Mills-Sen, who aligns with the anti-Trump corps and thinks the president is drawing from the Putin playbook, trying to “financially and emotionally” marginalize people and sap them of the energy and resources to fight back.
But Don Horning, president of the Leisure World Republican Club, has an entirely different perspective. He likes what he’s been seeing from Trump and Musk, and said his perspective is informed by his own government service.
Horning said he and his wife, Hope, are U.S. Navy veterans who worked in Veterans Administration healthcare. They think claims of bureaucratic bloat and misspent tax dollars are legit across all levels of government, and he noted that in California, undocumented immigrants qualify for Medi-Cal.
Horning, who spoke with me at the clubhouse and by phone the day before, said it would be “very sad” if retirees were to see a decline in benefits. But he said that, as he sees the math, there aren’t enough working people paying into entitlement programs to support the growing population of recipients, and in the absence of assured solvency, something’s got to be done.
“No matter what happens, there will always be an issue with funding for Social Security,” Horning said. “The DOGE effort can do nothing but help, because it’s fighting all of the waste.”
Donald Horning is president of the Leisure World Republican Club.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Is there waste in government spending, and room for greater efficiencies?
No doubt, but Social Security has operated relatively efficiently for nearly a century, keeping millions out of poverty, and Musk’s claims of widespread fraud have not been backed up.
Across the full spectrum of federal programs targeted by Trump, we are not witnessing precision strikes for the sake of improved services and the common good. Trump, Musk and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are like kids playing with dynamite. The enemies include public schools, higher ed, scientific research, healthcare, the courts, and anyone who has a difference of opinion.
Jeffrey Mulqueen, president of Leisure World Seniors for Peace, said that when he worked as a school superintendent in Massachusetts, he saw the need to trim administrative costs and cut budgets. But he said he acted in the interest of improving services and outcomes rather than making indiscriminate cuts.
“What we see now is that they’re just taking a hatchet to the federal budget,” Mulqueen said. “If the mission at Social Security is to … protect and support the most vulnerable members of our community, like seniors and those with disabilities, and children … they can do that in a way that makes sense and saves money.”
But there’s an ulterior motive at play, according to Bruce.
“I think the Trump administration really wants to cut back on things so that they can fund their tax breaks that they implemented during his first term,” the Dem Club president said.
Trump has said he does not intend to scale back Social Security benefits, but the Leisure World cynics don’t believe him. They cited thousands of firings at what critics had already called an understaffed agency, and they also cited news accounts of chaos and website crashes that have made it hard for beneficiaries to access their online accounts.
“Trump and Musk and the GOP are … trying to make it fail from the inside out,” said Mills-Senn.
Larkin tapped his phone, trying to get into the Social Security website, and showed me the response:
“Online service not available. We’re sorry but the online service you requested isn’t available right now. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
This is happening at a time when those on fixed budgets could be hit with higher prices for consumer goods thanks to Trump’s tariffs, and may see their nest eggs threatened by stock market volatility.
Lily McCoy is concerned about her own Social Security benefits and her son’s disability checks, but she’s worried about much more than that. She’s the one who tools around Leisure World in a golf cart flying an American flag and showcasing the placard that lists the “Early Warning Signs of Fascism.”
The signs include “identification of enemies as a unifying cause,” “controlled mass media,” “corporate power protected,” “labor power suppressed,” “disdain for intellectuals and the arts,” “obsession with crime and punishment,”and “rampant cronyism & corruption.”
Yep, all sounds frighteningly familiar.
McCoy — who intends to join the Saturday protest — said she’s gotten cheers and barbs from fellow residents, and she had two words of advice for a neighbor who gave her a hard time:
“Keep walking.”
steve.lopez@latimes.com