Trump administration says it’s withholding social safety net money from 5 states over fraud concerns

1 month ago 6

President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that it is withholding funding for programs that support needy families with children in five Democratic-led states over concerns about fraud.

“For too long, Democrat-led states and Governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement.

The administration has not laid out details of either the fraud claims or the widening plan to withhold funds, which was first reported by the New York Post.

An official in the White House budget office who has knowledge of the plan but was not authorized to speak about it publicly said that it was due to states “pouring money out” to people in the U.S. illegally.

Five states — California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York — are targeted. The Associated Press has asked all of them, and by Tuesday afternoon, none had received notice of a broader funding pause. But Gov. Kathy Hochul said New York is prepared to go to court, as Democratic-led states have scores of times now, to block the administration.

“We’ll fight this with every fiber of our being, because our kids should not be political pawns in a fight that Donald Trump seems to have with blue state governors,” she said.