WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s pick to run the Social Security Administration said he had to google the job after the president tapped him for the position.
In a meeting with managers at the agency’s Baltimore headquarters this week, Frank Bisignano, the commissioner of Social Security, was candid about his apparent unfamiliarity with the job.
“I don’t think the commissioner of Social Security is, like, a globally known title. It is to you, right? But, like, it wasn’t to me,” Bisignano said, according to audio of the meeting obtained by HuffPost.
“So I get a phone call, and it’s about Social Security. And I’m really … I swear I’m not looking for a job,” Bisignano continued. “And I’m like, ‘Well, what am I gonna do?’ So I’m googling Social Security. You know, one of my great skills, I’m one of the great googlers on the East Coast.”
Laughter can be heard on the recording, which captures Bisignano seemingly trying to endear himself to his new employees as he describes his background and invites them to ask questions.
“Clearly, Commissioner Bisignano was poking fun at himself so that everyone in the room felt comfortable having an open conversation about improving service for the American people,” a Social Security official told HuffPost.
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in an emailed statement Bisignano’s “proven success in the financial services industry uniquely positions him to lead the Trump Administration’s commonsense efforts to modernize the agency and improve its efficiency.”
Trump nominated the longtime Wall Street executive in December, and he started this month after the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” ripped through the agency, jettisoning senior staff, shuttering internal offices and barging into sensitive data systems. Bisignano assured staff he didn’t intend to do any more mass layoffs and that he wanted to provide stability.
At the start of the meeting, Bisignano joked that he fully expected his remarks to land in the news, making repeated references to the Washington Post. When he talked about how he googled his job, he immediately recognized it was headline fodder.
“That is the headline for the Post: Great Googler, Googler in Chief,” he said. “By the way, I like to have fun at work. We’re allowed to laugh, we’re allowed to have fun, we’re allowed to know each other’s families, we’re allowed to be normal. How’s that? I’m like, ‘What the heck is the Commissioner of Social Security?’”
He also joked that there have been a lot of Social Security commissioners with short tenures. He hadn’t realized the term is supposed to last for six years.
“By the time people found the bathroom, they were thinking about where to go,” he said, to laughter in the room. “Are we having fun yet?”
