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‘Fake News’: AOC Rapidly Corrected After Making Absurd Claim About Trump

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was quickly fact-checked Tuesday after falsely claiming that President Donald Trump had “shut off Medicaid” in response to reports of website outages. The misinformation spread rapidly, with left-wing media figures and activists seizing on a narrative that quickly collapsed under scrutiny.

The controversy erupted when Ocasio-Cortez quote-tweeted a post from the progressive group More Perfect Union, which cited Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) claiming that Medicaid portals were down nationwide. Without verifying the facts, the New York congresswoman responded with an outright declaration: “Trump shut off Medicaid.”

“My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night’s federal funding freeze,” Sen. Wyden, (D-OR), wrote in a post on X. “This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed.”

However, it didn’t take long for reality to catch up. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt swiftly addressed the situation, confirming that the Medicaid website had experienced an outage but that payments were unaffected.

“The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage,” Leavitt stated, adding, “We have confirmed no payments have been affected—they are still being processed and sent. We expect the portal will be back online shortly.”

Despite the clarification, Ocasio-Cortez’s claim had already circulated widely among her followers and progressive media circles, further fueling the misinformation machine.

Trump supporters and conservatives wasted no time calling out the congresswoman for spreading falsehoods. “FAKE NEWS!” Alex Bruesewitz, Trump’s campaign advisor remarked. Others pointed to a pattern of misinformation spread by Democrats in an effort to demonize Trump, particularly as he remains a dominant force in the 2024 election cycle.

While the Medicaid portal may have been temporarily down, the claim that Trump personally “shut off” Medicaid is completely baseless. The Trump administration’s recent pause on all federal grants and loans was sent through an internal memo from the White House budget office.

It revealed that the administration temporarily halted financial assistance to assess compliance with the president’s executive orders, including those aimed at limiting spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, clean energy programs, and foreign aid.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), under Acting Director Matthew Vaeth, issued a memorandum on Monday, mandating a temporary pause on federal financial assistance programs to align spending with President Trump’s priorities. The memo highlighted that over $3 trillion of the federal government’s $10 trillion Fiscal Year 2024 budget was allocated to grants and loans.

Vaeth stated that the pause aims to ensure taxpayer dollars advance the Administration’s goals, including “unleashing American energy and manufacturing,” “ending wokeness,” and “promoting efficiency in government.”

Federal agencies were instructed to identify programs that conflict with President Trump’s new executive orders, such as “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” and “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs.”

Effective January 28, 2025, agencies must halt financial assistance activities, including foreign aid, DEI initiatives, and green energy programs, pending a comprehensive review. By February 10, 2025, agencies must report program details to OMB.

The pause is not set to impact Social Security or Medicare, nor does it affect direct payments to individuals.