White House child care funding freeze opens door to affordability attacks
The Trump management announced a freeze of roughly $10 billion in federal funding for five Democratic-led states – California, New York, Illinois, Colorado, and Minnesota – citing widespread fraud uncovered in social service programs. The pause includes about $7.35 billion from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), $2.4 billion in Child Care and Progress Fund money, and $869 million from the Social services Block Grant. The move was framed by administration officials as a crackdown after reports of large-scale abuse (including roughly $1 billion stolen in minnesota schemes), with Justice Department and other investigations underway and dozens charged or convicted.
Democrats denounced the action as retaliatory and harmful to families already struggling with affordability, arguing it will be used as political ammunition in the midterms.Republicans and some conservatives defended the freezes as necessary to protect taxpayers and pressure state governments to address fraud and share data. Analysts quoted in the article differed on the tactic’s likely effectiveness: some called it an aggressive but temporary shock to the system, while others warned it risks politicizing federal aid and could backfire by fueling an affordability-focused Democratic message.
Trump freeze on billions of child care funding becomes political cudgel for Democrats on affordability
Democrats quickly slammed the Donald Trump White House’s recent decision to cut $10 billion in funds for child care and social services across five states as a “vindictive” effort to harm families struggling financially.
The announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services to cancel funding in California, New York, Illinois, Colorado, and Minnesota — all led by Democrats — follows the social services fraud scandal in Minnesota that spurred widespread condemnation from the GOP and eventually saw Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) end his third gubernatorial campaign.
All five states will see $7.35 billion cuts to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, a freeze on $2.4 billion to the Child Care and Development Fund, and $869 million to the Social Services Block Grant Program.
But in a midterm year when Democrats are itching to regain control of at least one, if not both, branches of Congress, the Trump administration risks Democrats seizing on attacking the White House for making daily life unaffordable for the average family.
Although the cuts are in Democratic states, California and New York will feature several swing races that will determine control of the House as the GOP hopes to maintain or improve on its slim majority.
TRUMP TO CUT $10 BILLION IN CHILD CARE FUNDING FOR FIVE BLUE STATES
“It’s obviously going to be easy fodder for Democrats to say, ‘OK, you talked a big game about being pro-family, wanting more babies, why are you holding these programs hostage?’ And I frankly suspect that this will not persist that long,” Patrick T. Brown, fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, said. “It’s a very aggressive maneuver to kind of get attention and send the shock waves to the system.”
Democrats have excoriated the freeze as “downright shameful: Trump is ripping away child care and resources from states that didn’t vote for him,” according to Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO).
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) claimed the White House was aiming to “make life harder and more expensive for children and families,” while Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) wrote on X that “I don’t ever want to hear any ‘pro-family’ bull**** from this Administration ever again. Cutting off $10 billion for child care in CA and 4 other blue states will make kids, parents, families, and providers suffer. This is disgusting political retribution.”
Kaivan Shroff, a 2024 delegate for former Vice President Kamala Harris, told the Washington Examiner that the freeze on federal funding is demonstrative of the Trump administration’s governing by revenge.
“It does seem like really bad politics, and I do feel like maybe it’s also reflective of just a larger tone shift by this administration that they’re not really governing to win it seems anymore,” Shroff said. “But just to abuse, to drive the news cycle, to keep their grift going for what seems like maybe a shorter term window that they have in mind.”
Brad Bannon, another Democratic strategist, similarly claimed this was “Donald Trump again, putting his own political vendetta ahead of the lives of women and children.”
“And it’s a perfect opportunity to strike out against Trump for ignoring the economic realities of women and children and child care and how important that is to the economy,” he added.
The GOP clearly sees cracking down on abuse and fraud as a clear winner after reports showed that $1 billion in taxpayer money was stolen in three separate fraud schemes in Minnesota meant to support providers assisting people at risk of homelessness, provide therapy for autistic children, and feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the cuts also come as the administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are still hashing out next steps on the expired Affordable Care Act‘s premium tax credits, as well as the GOP still reeling over Trump’s admonition “to be flexible on Hyde,” on Tuesday, referencing the legislative provision barring federal funds from financing abortion services.
Democrats have used an affordability message, which Trump has called a “hoax,” to help win back races in several elections in 2025 and begin to reunify a fractured party, while also blaming the White House for increasing healthcare costs for the public.
“For all the flak Hakeem Jeffries gets, he pretty much rolled Mike Johnson at the end of the year, won over, even some Republicans, some really pretty MAGA Republicans, to have this discharge position petition vote. So I do think they’re actually pretty effective on it, and effective messengers,” Shroff said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration’s crackdown on the fraud in Minnesota and elsewhere during a Wednesday briefing.
“When it comes to Minnesota, the fraud that we have seen, the wide scale of fraud, is really remarkable. It’s egregious,” Leavitt said. “The Department of Health and Human Services has also begun requiring a justification and photo evidence for all child care-related payments nationwide, and they required Minnesota to conduct a full audit of all child care centers. They also froze $185 million in funding to Minnesota.”
The Justice Department has charged 98 defendants in several Medicaid fraud and related case programs, with 64 of whom have been convicted, according to Leavitt. The Department of Homeland Security has also conducted investigations on the ground in Minneapolis, while the Department of Labor is reviewing Minnesota’s unemployment program.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck effort from the entire administration to get to the bottom of this and to ensure that the ripping off of taxpayers in the state of Minnesota, and it won’t just be Minnesota,” she said. “It’ll be any state across this country where fraud has taken place, and we are protecting law-abiding, taxpaying American citizens.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins noted that 22 blue states have refused to share their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program data, impairing the agency’s ability to “figure out and ensure that those who really need these programs are actually getting these programs.”
“Clearly, you all have been writing about Minnesota; California is next,” Rollins said at the briefing. “We’re looking at New York, some other states. The amount of fraud in all of these programs is absolutely stunning.”
But Brown, a fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, cautioned that the tactics are reminiscent of the Department of Government Efficiency’s mixed results in slashing the federal budget.
“This idea that because of these cases of fraud in Minnesota, we now need to just slam that red button and stop the presses and not fund these child care block grants … it’s exactly the DOGE playbook all over again,” he said. “And I do not see that as a particularly effective way of going about rooting out fraud and abuse, and I don’t expect it’ll be that effective this time either.”
Republicans and Democratic strategists claimed that Trump is simply using the power of the federal government to bend lawmakers to his will, a tactic he has employed for much of his second administration.
“If blue-state governors want Washington money, they should follow federal law and policy rather than treating the Treasury as an ATM. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Trump is using hardball tactics against Democrat governors in Democratic states,” Dennis Lennox, a GOP strategist, said. “Freezing funds forces Democrats to choose between investigating and prosecuting fraud and siding with fraud and abuse, the latter of which is hardly a winning position to take.”
“It’s actually kind of brilliant on Trump’s part, because he’s not thinking electorally. He’s not thinking about the next election,” Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist, said. “He’s thinking about right now and what he can do to lean in and hold states that are dependent on federal resources hostage.”
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