Trump is holding hospitals 'hostage' in brazen 'power grab': AOC

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) unloaded on President Donald Trump in an escalation of the brewing Democratic opposition to the new administration as it unleashes a barrage of new executive orders.

“Trump is holding all the nation’s hospitals and vital services hostage to seize power from Congress and hand it over to billionaires,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a social media post Tuesday when it became clear that Medicaid portals had shut down throughout the United States.

“We must state the truth: this is a constitutional crisis. It’s a massive, illegal power grab that the House and Senate have a sworn duty to stop," she added.

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The New York lawmaker, who hasn’t shied away from criticizing Trump in the past, made the comments on her X account in reaction to Trump's pause on federal grants and loans – reportedly in the trillions of dollars – that goes into effect Tuesday.

The sweeping executive order has threatened several crucial government programs, including Medicaid, which provides health insurance to over 70 million Americans.

Ocasio-Cortez’s comments followed Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) who confirmed the portal nationwide portal outage on Bluesky earlier Tuesday. He called the move “a blatant attempt to rip away health care from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed."