'Reads like a hostage note': Trump order flagged as 'massive fraud' by ex-official

A former official in the government's Office of Management and Budget denounced a temporary pause to all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government as "a massive fraud" carried out by its not-yet-confirmed director Russell Vought.

Topher Spiro, who served as associate director of health care programs under former president Joe Biden, flagged the two-page document signed by the executive agency's acting director, Matthew Vaeth, as legally questionable and highly suspicious.

"I have no doubt that OMB lawyers would believe this is illegal," Spiro posted on X. "I know Matt Vaeth. This memo reads like a hostage note written directly by Russ Vought, who is not confirmed."

The memo calls for every agency to perform a “comprehensive analysis” to ensure compliance on grant and loan programs with President Donald Trump's executive orders, although it carved out exceptions for Social Security or Medicare recipients. It could impact at least tens of billions of dollars in payments when it goes into effect Tuesday evening.

"This is cruel," Spiro wrote. "A sampling of funding potentially affected in health care: all opioid prevention funding, all mental health funding, funding for community health centers, suicide prevention and the suicide lifeline, HIV/AIDS treatment, grants to states to address avian flu."

ALSO READ: Top GOPer's ‘most immediate’ priority for new committee includes probing a MAGA conspiracy

Spiro believes that Vought, a conservative activist and Project 2025 architect who is Trump's nominee to lead the agency, was exerting improper control over the office he has not yet been Senate-approved to lead.

"In sum, Russ Vought is illegally carrying out his ideological agenda with greatest harm to the most vulnerable — including many in the working class and rural communities who voted for Trump," Spiro wrote. "A massive fraud."