News
‘Crisis Deepening’: Funding Freeze Remains White House Says After OMB Memo Pulled
The White House is making clear that even though the Trump budget office has rescinded its highly confusing and controversial memo declaring a massive and widespread freeze on possibly trillions of federal funding dollars, the actual funding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Wednesday afternoon, after celebrations from the left, believing the memo’s rescission meant the policy was also rescinded.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
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Image via Reuters
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Fox News hosts are suggesting that President Donald Trump is just an average guy.
In a segment on the cable network’s “Outnumbered” on Wednesday, co-host Harris Faulkner told her colleagues, “it’s ironic, though, but he’s not really all that different.”
Faulkner then sought to portray Trump — a billionaire real estate developer who owns multiple golf courses and the Mar-a-Lago resort — as relatable, describing him as “just a guy’s guy” and “not really all that different” from ordinary Americans.
“He loves McDonald’s,” she said.
“He likes to hang.”
“He loves his family.”
“And kind of, like, not that McDonald’s is poor to being, like, an all American, but I think it is — love those fries,” Faulkner remarked.
READ MORE: House Republican Calls for Bondi to Testify Over Epstein Files ‘Failure to Comply’
“But, I mean, he’s all those things that you don’t have to have a billion dollars or have to have zero dollars to get,” she exclaimed. “He’s just a guy’s guy.”
Faulkner went on to say that Trump “respects women.”
“He’s hired a lot of tremendously talented women — we’ve met them.”
“My dad,” she added, “used to say, the test of a man is how he treats the women in his life.”
“Can he be that alpha, and be loving, and generous, and all those things?”
Co-host Riley Gaines added, “They called him a misogynist but really he’s the worst misogynist, ever.”
Faulkner: He’s a billionaire—he’s different. It’s ironic though he’s not all that different. He loves McDonald’s, he loves his family. He is just a guy’s guy. pic.twitter.com/TorAoZXzmB
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 14, 2026
READ MORE: Trump Blasted Federal Prosecutors as ‘Weak’ for Not Targeting His Adversaries: Report
A prominent House Republican is calling for U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify before Congress over her failure to comply with the requirements of federal law surrounding the release of the Epstein Files.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the federal government to release all unclassified documents in the Epstein files by December 19. Reports state that less than one percent of all the documents have been made public.
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the lead co-sponsor of legislation forcing a vote on the release of the files, on Wednesday said that the Attorney General “should be called to testify in the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee where she must answer for her failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.”
READ MORE: Federal Officer Who Shot Renee Good ‘In Hiding’: Report
Congressman Massie also called it “unusual” that Bondi has “never appeared in front of the House Judiciary Committee.”
Massie, along with California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, last week asked a federal judge to consider appointing a special master to oversee the production and publication of the Epstein Files.
“Put simply, the DOJ cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the Act,” Massie and Khanna wrote to Judge Paul E. Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York, according to Politico.
“I think it’s the quickest way to produce, to expedite the document production, because these lawyers at the DOJ understand what judges can do in courtrooms,” Massie added. “And they are already communicating with that judge, even though they’re not communicating with us.”
U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) told CNN that “Donald Trump continues to lead a White House coverup of the Epstein files.”
“Why has it been weeks now, weeks, that the date has passed, where all the files should have been released to the Congress and to the public? We have received one percent of the files. That is criminal, it’s illegal. What is Pam Bondi and Donald Trump hiding?”
READ MORE: Trump Blasted Federal Prosecutors as ‘Weak’ for Not Targeting His Adversaries: Report
Image via Reuters
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross, who reportedly fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, at point-blank range in Minneapolis last week, is now said to be in hiding.
“I know for a fact now he has to be in hiding … for the safety of him and his family,” Trump border czar Tom Homan said during an episode of the “Will Cain Country” podcast, according to The Hill.
Homan alleged that there are “wanted” posters with Ross’ picture and license plate number, and said that Ross is receiving death threats.
“It’s beyond the pale,” Homan added.
READ MORE: Trump Blasted Federal Prosecutors as ‘Weak’ for Not Targeting His Adversaries: Report
He also suggested that Ross may decide to take legal action against those who have labeled him a murderer.
Vice President JD Vance said that Ross and all ICE officers have absolute federal immunity. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Ross has “federal immunity.”
“The precedent here is very simple,” Vance said, according to CNN. “You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action – that’s a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job.”
Legal experts disagree.
“The idea that a federal agent has absolute immunity for crimes they commit on the job is absolutely ridiculous,” said Michael J.Z. Mannheimer, a constitutional law expert, told CNN.
The Trump Department of Justice has said it will not open a civil rights investigation into Ross’ shooting of Good.
President Donald Trump claimed that Good was acting in a “disrespectful” manner while he defended the ICE officer.
READ MORE: Trump Declares Grocery Prices ‘Rapidly Down’ as Cost of Food Surges to 3-Year High
Image via Reuters
Trump Blasted Federal Prosecutors as ‘Weak’ for Not Targeting His Adversaries: Report
Federal Officer Who Shot Renee Good ‘In Hiding’: Report
House Republican Calls for Bondi to Testify Over Epstein Files ‘Failure to Comply’
Fox Hosts Try to Convince Viewers Trump ‘Not Really All That Different’ From Them
Fox Hosts Try to Convince Viewers Trump ‘Not Really All That Different’ From Them
House Republican Calls for Bondi to Testify Over Epstein Files ‘Failure to Comply’
Federal Officer Who Shot Renee Good ‘In Hiding’: Report
Trump Blasted Federal Prosecutors as ‘Weak’ for Not Targeting His Adversaries: Report
Trump Declares Grocery Prices ‘Rapidly Down’ as Cost of Food Surges to 3-Year High
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