As California burns, Trump freezes federal spending to investigate it for ‘wokeness’
California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday announced he is joining a coalition of Democratic state attorneys general, including New York’s Letitia James, to once again sue the Trump administration, this time to block a pause on federal funding for programs such as Medicaid and food stamps.
The funding freeze was set to go into effect Tuesday afternoon. However, minutes before going into effect, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan in Washington ordered a halt to the freeze. AliKhan’s block stays in effect through Monday.
A memo from the acting director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, Matthew Vaeth, has called for a “temporary pause” in federal spending across government agencies, while the office conducts a “comprehensive analysis” of them.
“Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,” Vaeth wrote in the memo, which is shared online by The Washington Post.
“The use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” the memo said.
The OMB since has released new guidance, saying that food stamps and Medicare are unaffected, though NOTUS reporter Katherine Swartz noted online that that contradicts the original order.
AG James said that “there is no question this policy is reckless, dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional.”
She said that the federal Office of Management and Budget decision to block the disbursement of congressionally appropriated federal aid has resulted in chaos across the country, as federal programs have shut down their portals in response.
According to James, at least 20 states have been frozen out of Medicaid reimbursement. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, posted online that his office has confirmed those portals are down in all 50 states.
“This is a blatant attempt to rip away health care from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed,” Wyden wrote in the post.
Bonta, who attended the virtual presser while traveling in a vehicle, said that the OMB order has threatened to freeze up to $3 trillion in funding.
“It’s thrown state programs into chaos and created confusion among our residents,” Bonta said, who called the order “arbitrary and capricious.”
Bonta said the order puts wildfire response funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency at risk.
California’s attorney general pointed out that this is week two of Donald Trump’s presidency, and already California has sued twice — the first time being when California sued to block Trump’s attempt to erase the constitutionally protected right of birthright citizenship.
“Disappointing, but not surprising,” Bonta said.
Also raising the alarm Tuesday was Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee. He said that “this overreach is unconstitutional and hurts the thousands of Californians who have been devastated by the recent fires. When Congress approves federal funds for programs to help communities, they are not optional: they are legal mandates.”
Congressional Republicans thus far appear to be less alarmed about the federal funding freeze.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, told CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju that he is “not a lawyer” but that he “doesn’t have a problem” with the freeze.
“I think that’s probably what you ought to do when you’re coming in as a new administration,” Cole told Raju, according to Raju’s social media post.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, said at a news conference Tuesday that “they’ve taken certain things off the table,” including Medicaid and food stamps but that “hopefully they’ll further clarify what will be impacted.”
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the freeze “a work in progress.”
“Everybody take a deep breath, stay calm. Every one of these programs is gonna be looked at. He didn’t say we’re gonna do a two year study, blah blah blah. The way it’s working is there is constant input on programs right now that’s being looked at. This is gonna work. Everybody stay calm. We’ll get this done,” he said.
At the White House, Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she couldn’t say whether Medicaid is affected by the freeze.
“This is not a blanket pause on federal assistance in grant programs from the Trump Administration. Individual assistance that includes — I’m not naming everything that’s included but just to give you a few examples — Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, food stamps, welfare benefits, assistance that is going directly to individuals will not be impacted by this pause,” she said.
In a social media post afterward, Leavitt wrote that the White House is aware of the Medicaid outage.
“We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent.We expect the portal will be back online shortly,” she wrote.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 12:18 PM with the headline "As California burns, Trump freezes federal spending to investigate it for ‘wokeness’."