Gavin Newsom takes off gloves after Trump admin withholds $867M in federal funding

California Gov. Gavin Newsom lashed out at the Trump administration Tuesday over what his press office called a “recycled political stunt” – one that saw the administration freeze more than $867 million in federal funding earmarked for Medicaid recipients.

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it would be freezing more than $1 billion in Medicaid funding earmarked for California and Minnesota, funding that would only be released, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said, once the two states “provide basic documentation showing that these services are legitimate and not fraudulent.”

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz said the Trump administration’s approach was actually “very conservative,” and that the administration could have, should they have selected to do so, “taken a lot more money.”

Newsom’s press office didn’t mince words with its response.

“Today’s announcement from Dr. Oz is the same recycled political stunt we’ve seen before. California isn’t being targeted because Trump has evidence of fraud,” reads a Tuesday social media post on X from Newsom’s press office.

“We are being targeted for political reasons — and because Dr. Oz doesn’t understand that we are *SAVING* taxpayers money by keeping seniors and people with disabilities out of far more expensive nursing homes! We hate fraud. That’s not what this is. And we stand ready to collaborate with CMS in good faith efforts to combat fraud.”

The Trump administration has increasingly resorted to withholding federal funds from states as a tool of coercion – or, as described by ex-Trump official Miles Taylor, “extortion.” For example, a recent set of rule changes enacted by the Trump administration mandated states adopt a “sweeping set of election changes” or lose federal grants largely used to combat terrorism and disasters.