Republicans are about to walk into another 'trap': analyst

Republicans appear ready to "shoot themselves in the foot" on a key issue for voters after they voted to cut Medicaid funding in President Donald Trump's domestic spending bill, according to one analyst.

A key provision of Trump's domestic spending bill prohibits Medicaid from funding abortion care, which UC Davis law professor Mary Ziegler argued in a new column for Slate is "the anti-abortion movement’s most significant win in Trump’s second term." The provision was swiftly challenged in court by Planned Parenthood and 22 states.

This week, a federal court blocked the provision, which allows federal funding to continue for the time being. Ziegler argued that the order could become a major problem for Republicans as the 2026 midterm elections approach.

"The longer the state plaintiffs can keep funding for Planned Parenthood alive, and make sure the issue remains in the public eye, the more likely it becomes that Republicans will use the abortion issue to shoot themselves in the foot in 2026," she wrote.

"Strangely, what the party seems to have taken from all of this is that foregrounding its opposition to abortion will help it win," Ziegler continued. "Whatever else comes of the defunding litigation, it has set a political trap for congressional Republicans, and from the looks of it, they may be ready to walk right in."

Read the entire column by clicking here.