The White House is making clear that even though the Trump budget office has rescinded its highly confusing and controversial memo declaring a massive and widespread freeze on possibly trillions of federal funding dollars, the actual funding freeze itself is still in effect and will be “rigorously implemented.” The rescission of the memo reportedly was merely a tactic to “get around” a court injunction.

“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” wrote White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Wednesday afternoon, after celebrations from the left, believing the memo’s rescission meant the policy was also rescinded. “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”

A federal court had placed a temporary, partial “stay,” or pause, on the OMB memo.

“This is just more confusion and chaos,” New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in response to Leavitt. “We will be in court this afternoon.”

READ MORE: ‘This Job Is Life and Death for Kids!’: RFK Jr. Blasted in Heated Conformation Hearing

“On the White House rescinding the memo,” reported CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs, “aides say it is not an end to the intended freeze of federal funding that clashes with Trump’s worldviews. It’s meant to get around the court injunction.”

“Bingo,” U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), one of the more vocal critics of the Trump White House, responded. “Crisis is deepening, not abating. They are trying to ignore the court order.”

“The funding shutdown is still in place. They are just doing it without the piece of paper,” he added.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) added, “So they reversed the memo and then sent out this? Chaos.”

Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reported on the White House’s apparent reasoning, telling viewers Wednesday afternoon, “Karoline Leavitt said in the briefing that this [OMB memo] was targeted at things like the $50 million that went to, uh, she said, condoms in Gaza. Initiatives like that are still subject to  this freeze, anything that’s impacted by those executive orders, there were, I think, seven listed in the memo, but in the interim, the OMB has pulled back that memo itself, because that barred communication between OMB and agency heads and what, in fact, was impacted.”

The OMB memo specifically noted programs like the “Green New Deal” would be frozen, even though the Green New Deal was never fully passed or signed into law.

RELATED: ‘Screwed Up Bigly’: Stephen Miller Slammed After Calling OMB Funding Freeze a ‘Dumb Media Hoax’

The White House’s claims about $50 million being sent to Gaza for condoms — repeated on live television Wednesday afternoon by President Donald Trump in a signing ceremony of the Laken Riley Act — also appears to be false.

“According to a comprehensive report issued in September by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the US in the past year went to Gaza,” The Guardian reported Tuesday. “In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan.”

“As Dan Evon of the non-profit News Literacy Project points out: ‘It’s also worth noting that this is not a Biden program. Trump, too, spent funds on sending contraceptives around the globe. In 2019, about $40m was spent on contraceptives by the Trump administration.’”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Heinrich: Levitt said in the briefing that this was targeted at things like the $50 million that went to condoms in Gaza. Initiatives like that are still subject to this freeze, pic.twitter.com/kWB3kuGFNR

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 29, 2025

READ MORE: ‘Despair and Violence’: RFK Jr. Is a ‘Predator’ Says Caroline Kennedy in ‘Damning’ Video

Image via Reuters 

President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., faced sharp questioning and intense criticism from Democratic U.S. Senators during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Throughout the hearing, the right-wing anti-vaccine activist was pressed on his past statements, some of which he denied making, forcing challenges to the veracity and consistency of his positions.

One focal point of the hearing was Kennedy’s stance on abortion. During an exchange with Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Kennedy stated, “I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion. President Trump has told me he wants to end late-term abortions, and he wants to protect conscience exemptions, and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions.”

RFK Jr: “I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2m abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion. President Trump has told me he wants to end late term abortions.” pic.twitter.com/dfukL86OEr

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 29, 2025

Those comments, one example of his shifting views, quickly made headlines Wednesday, given his prior positions on abortion.

RELATED: ‘Despair and Violence’: RFK Jr. Is a ‘Predator’ Says Caroline Kennedy in ‘Damning’ Video

Minutes before that, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) had pummeled Kennedy with his lengthy history of comments on a wide range of public policy issues — including abortion.

Bennet at one point asked, “did you say on a podcast, and I quote, I wouldn’t leave it — abortion — to the states. My belief is we should leave it to the woman. We shouldn’t have the government involved, even if it’s full term.”

“Did you say that, Mr. Kennedy?”

“Senator, I believe that every abortion is a tragedy —” Kennedy replied.

“Did you say it, Mr. Kennedy?”

Senator Bennet appeared gravely frustrated.

READ MORE: ‘Hostage Note’: Trump’s Funding Freeze Will Deliver ‘Greatest Harm’ Says OMB Veteran

“This matters!” he exclaimed loudly. “It doesn’t matter what you come here and say that isn’t true, that’s not reflective of what you really believe, that you haven’t said over decade after decade after decade, because unlike other jobs we’re confirming around this place, this is a job where it is life and death for the kids that I used to work for in the Denver Public school, and for families all over this country, that are suffering from living in the richest country of the world that can’t deliver basic health care and basic mental health here to them.”

“It’s too important for the games that you’re playing, Mr. Kennedy. And I hope my colleagues will say to the president, I have no influence over him. I hope my colleagues will say to the president out of 330 million Americans, we can do better than this.”

BENNET: Did you say Lyme disease is a highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon?

RFK Jr: I probably did say that

BENNET: Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender

RFK Jr: No

BENNET: I have the record pic.twitter.com/tBhtL5yx4y

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 29, 2025

Kennedy also falsely claimed the majority of Americans are dissatisfied with Medicaid and Medicare, both of which he repeatedly confused, wrongly naming one for the other.

The latest KFF Health Tracking Poll reports that “about eight in ten (82%) Americans hold favorable views of Medicare and more than three-fourths (77%) hold favorable views of Medicaid.”

Elsewhere, Kennedy was accused of making false statements on a wide variety of issues.

Mother Jones’ David Corn wrote: “It took RFK Jr. just six minutes into his opening statement to lie to Congress…and then came other falsehoods and misrepresentations.”

Democratic strategist and consultant Sawyer Hackett on social media observed: “We’re an hour into the RFK Jr hearing and he’s lied under oath about:

– claiming he’s ‘pro-vaccine’
– saying exposure to pesticides causes children to become trans
– being pro-choice as recently as last year
– saying he had ‘nothing to do’ with measles outbreak in America Samoa”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump DOJ Fires ‘More Than a Dozen’ Prosecutors from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Team

Image via Reuters 

Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff, is under fire after appearing repeatedly to attempt to whitewash the Office of Management and Budget memo that ordered a funding freeze on “all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”

The OMB memo, which was not publicly rolled out but rather discovered by journalist Marisa Kabas, appears to have led to the shuttering on Tuesday of the Medicaid portals in all 50 states. There were also reports that in addition to the Medicaid portal, the portal for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as “food stamps,” also went down on Tuesday, along with other sources or recipients of federal funding.

Miller declared that the massive nationwide concern and confusion were a media creation.

“I can’t help it if left-wing media outlets published a fake news story that caused confusion,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. The confusion, Miller insisted, was a “false story” that was “created by the media.”

READ MORE: ‘Despair and Violence’: RFK Jr. Is a ‘Predator’ Says Caroline Kennedy in ‘Damning’ Video

Later on Tuesday Miller doubled down, declaring on social media, “Welcome to the first dumb media hoax of 2025. OMB ordered a review of funding to NGOs, foreign governments and large discretionary contracts. It explicitly excluded all aid and benefit programs. Leftwing media outright lied and some people fell for the hoax.”

OMB was forced to issue an explainer Tuesday after media outlets accurately reported what the OMB memo stated. But some say that the FAQ was an opportunity for OMB to backtrack after massive, nationwide anger, fear, and confusion — which was somewhat quieted after a federal judge issued a temporary partial pause on the OMB memo.

U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) responded to Miller’s remarks, writing: “They are back-tracking because we spoke up. Good. But make no mistake: their OMB memo ordered a freeze of *all* grants. The Medicaid and SNAP portals went dark. Head Start providers couldn’t draw funds. This was not a coincidence. It was their plan. And they screwed up bigly.”

Despite Miller’s repeated claims that the memo was clear and did not affect a wide array of federally-funded programs, The Boston Globe reported that “Children’s Friend, a Head Start program in Rhode Island, said it was unable to draw down $500,000 for this week’s payroll,” and “Open Door Health, an LGBTQ+ health clinic, said it could not access its federal funds on Tuesday.”

Congressman Magaziner also posted a list of organizations that he says are being blocked from receiving funding by the Trump Department of Homeland Security. “This is a gift to terrorists and our adversaries across the world. Trump needs to stop this madness and resume funding now,” Magaziner, the Homeland Security Ranking Member for Counterterrorism, wrote:

As Homeland Security Ranking Member for Counterterrorism, I just received this list of grants the Trump Administration is blocking from funding.

This is a gift to terrorists and our adversaries across the world. Trump needs to stop this madness and resume funding now. pic.twitter.com/YbyFUPEALH

— Congressman Seth Magaziner (@Rep_Magaziner) January 28, 2025

Outrage at Miller’s remarks calling the massive public upset and confusion over OMB’s memo a “dumb media hoax” was extensive.

READ MORE: ‘Hostage Note’: Trump’s Funding Freeze Will Deliver ‘Greatest Harm’ Says OMB Veteran

“Completely false. Your first lie of the year. Payment Management Services (PMS), through which states get Medicaid funds from the federal government, had a banner saying payments were stopped because of Trump’s order. Stop lying,” wrote MSNBC columnist Rotimi Adeoye, whose bio says he is a former congressional aide and advisor for the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

“Sure there are dumb media hoaxes but if you accidentally turn off Medicaid people notice,” observed Matt Stoller, a political commentator, author, and the research director of the American Economic Liberties Project.

“Another familiar messaging strategy from the White House – cause confusion and blame it on a ‘media hoax.’ In reality, Programs like Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, etc were locked out of funding today. Either White House made errors or they aren’t telling the truth,” wrote Fox 32 Chicago Political Correspondent Paris Schutz.

“Republicans send out a vague, sloppy, unclear memo that gives everyone the impression that aid to orgs are under attack, Medicaid and other services stop working, Republicans go on AIR supporting this, but Democrats are blamed for pushing a hoax? C’mon get a new playbook,” wrote Tahra Jirari, Director of Economic Analysis at Chamber of Progress.

“No…you complete clowns put out a sweeping vaguely worded executive order that ORDERED ALL FEDERAL GRANT AND LOAN FUNDING TO CEASE, were called out by the public and the media for the disaster this would present, and are now blaming everyone else. You overstepped and got caught,” declared political commentator Andrew Wortman.

“Yeah, it was so explicit that OMB had to release another document in an attempt to clarify,” said Tad DeHaven, a Cato Institute policy analyst.

“Dude you guys literally shut off Medicaid. Which part of that were Democrats or the media involved with?” asked Paul Iskajyan, the Communications Director for U.S. Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA).

READ MORE: Trump DOJ Fires ‘More Than a Dozen’ Prosecutors from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Team

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