“No tax on social security for our great seniors.”

Remarks at the Congressional picnic, South Lawn, repeated at the Republican midterm convention, Dallas

The 2025 law did not end the taxation of Social Security benefits. The Internal Revenue Service describes the senior provision as an additional $6,000 deduction for people aged 65 and over, available for 2025 through 2028 and phasing out above $75,000 of modified adjusted gross income, or $150,000 for joint filers. It is a deduction against income, not an exclusion of benefits from tax. The Tax Foundation states that the act does not contain the promised elimination of income tax on Social Security benefits, and that the senior deduction is temporary through the end of 2028. He repeated the claim at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on September 9, 2026 and added that it was done.

The administration's own estimate is the claim's best defence. The Council of Economic Advisers projected that 51.4 million seniors receiving Social Security, 88 percent of them, would pay no tax on their benefits under the law, because their deductions would exceed their taxable benefits. The same table shows 64 percent already paid none under prior law, and leaves about 12 percent still paying. A deduction that lifts most seniors above the threshold is not the same as no tax on Social Security, and it expires after 2028.