News
‘Screwed Up Bigly’: Stephen Miller Slammed After Calling OMB Funding Freeze a ‘Dumb Media Hoax’
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
Image via Shutterstock
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
