'How many rakes will he step on?' Trump official mocked over move to punish blue states

The director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, announced that the office will withhold significant funds from blue states, which would impact a substantial portion of the United States population.

"The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA," will be the ones that are canceled, Vought said.

He claimed it was "Green New Deal" funding, but the funds actually came from an infrastructure bill passed four years ago.

The problem with that is that a number of blue states have Republican lawmakers in those states, noted Politico congressional reporter Meredith Lee Hill.

"Republicans have been watching Trump's shutdown plans for Colorado and Minnesota - two states with Dem governors but also a fair number of House Republicans. NY and CA are also tricky targets for that reason. They all stand to be hit pretty hard by the admin's shutdown moves," she wrote on X.

Data analyst Joey Schmidtt echoed the same sentiment, "Why would the other side negotiate with you if you're just going to cancel parts of the agreement later anyway? And why does it seem like you're selectively only canceling funding in states run by the opposition?"

Outside of House seats, Republicans had hoped to be competitive in the New Hampshire and Minnesota Senate races for 2026. Targeting those states could result in harder campaigns for GOP candidates.

"How many rakes will Russ Vought step on before this thing ends?" asked congressional aide Aaron Fritschner.

"Thanks for being pro-extinction-of-mankind. Good call, Baldy," said former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann.

"Gee, all Blue states. What are the odds?!" said Larry Sabato, the author of "Sabato's Crystal Ball," which has become known for accurately predicting elections.

Editor and writer Kevin R. Tipple called it "Amazingly stupid." He blasted, "Every time you think they have reached a new level of stupidity, along comes another department head deliberately making the ongoing stupidity of this incompetent administration even worse. Total failure."

It prompted some to question why Democrats should lend their help to end a government shutdown when the federal government is pulling their states' funding anyway. Anti-Trump people said funding a Trump government shouldn't happen anyway. Others noted that many blue states are responsible for the federal dollars, energy, produce and more sent into red states, and called on those blue states to respond in kind.