On October 21, the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget published an analysis of how Trump’s proposed economic agenda could imperil the Social Security Trust Fund.

According to the CRFB analysis, Trump’s piecemeal tax and trade policy plans would choke off revenue streams currently funding Social Security, while sweeping tariffs would rapidly raise prices, “which would either increase cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) through higher inflation or reduce taxable payroll.” Crucially, the CRFB analysis warned that Trump’s proposed mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would also remove a key source of revenue funding much of the American retirement system: payroll taxes paid by immigrant workers. (The CFRB analysis did not even account for the macroeconomic impact of mass deportation, which would severely disrupt the economy and potentially manufacture a deep recession.)

Despite these facts, the CRFB analysis about Trump’s looming threat to Social Security went unmentioned during morning, evening, and Sunday news coverage across the three major corporate broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) in the two weeks following its publication.

From October 21 through November 4, ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week; CBS’ Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation; and NBC’s Today, Nightly News, and Meet the Press all neglected to cover the report.

The only discussion on broadcast news programming about how Trump’s policy agenda could imperil Social Security came during a nearly 7-minute discussion on the October 31 edition of PBS News Hour, in which co-anchor Amna Nawaz and correspondent Lisa Desjardins discussed the implications of the Social Security and Medicare proposals supported by the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

Desjardins noted that Trump “has no proposals for making the system more solvent,” and added that his current campaign agenda differs from his previous positions: “He wanted to privatize the system and raise the Social Security retirement age.”

Desjardins reported that “Trump’s plan would most likely make Social Security insolvent and force cuts three years sooner, by 2031,” and added that cuts to Social Security benefits “would be larger — a 33% cut in benefits in 10 years,” compared to those already expected under current law. She concluded by noting that the cuts “would affect people, beginning with those who are 60 years old now and want to retire by 67” and would also “affect everyone on Social Security now as well.”

Media Matters previously demonstrated that PBS News Hour was far more likely than its corporate broadcast competitors to discuss important economic policy issues in the first and second quarters of 2024, with the network’s weekday evening news program often lapping ABC, CBS, and NBC in combined coverage.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week; CBS’ Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation; NBC’s Today, Nightly News, and Meet the Press; and PBS’ News Hour for any of the terms “Social Security,” “Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget,” “CRFB,” “federal budget,” “bankrupt,” “deficit,” or “trust fund” or any variations of either of the terms “solvent” or “insolvent” within close proximity of any of the terms “Trump,” “former president,” “candidate,” or “nominee” from October 21, 2024, when the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget published its report stating that Trump's campaign proposals would dramatically worsen Social Security's finances, through November 4, 2024.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when the effect GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s policy proposals would have on Social Security’s solvency was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the proposals' effect. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the proposals' effect with one another.

We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned the effect of Trump's proposals without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about the effect of Trump's proposals scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We rounded all times to the nearest minute.