Vice President JD Vance stepped to the podium like a dutiful foot soldier, freshly armed with President Donald Trump’s latest marching orders and ready to carry them out without hesitation. The tone was confident, almost rehearsed — until a single, straightforward question landed and his shaky answer gave way for immediate backlash.
The administration is again testing how far it can go by inventing pretexts and using federal dollars as leverage, daring state leaders and courts to decide where oversight ends and coercion begins.
Vance led the charge Wednesday, announcing an indefinite pause on $259 million in federal Medicaid funds to Minnesota, while repeatedly insisting it was not something the administration wanted to do.
The move came just one day after he was tapped to spearhead a new “war on fraud,” and it targeted a blue state that has long irritated Trump. Critics quickly framed the freeze as retribution, particularly after the administration’s recent immigration enforcement push in Minneapolis ended in a humiliating retreat following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens.
Standing alongside Healthcare Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz at a news conference, Vance said the funds would remain frozen until the state met federally imposed conditions.
The decision immediately raised questions about executive authority and put Democratic governors on notice as Vance worked to portray the freeze as routine enforcement rather than an extraordinary flex by the White House.
The night before, Trump elevated Vance’s profile during his State of the Union address, assigning him to the crackdown.
Trump framed the task in sweeping terms, promising instant results. “He’ll get it done,” Trump said. “And if we’re able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight.”
Within hours, Vance and Oz unveiled the opening salvo in Minnesota, a state already under investigation for alleged fraud tied to day care centers. Vance said the administration was acting to enforce accountability.
“We have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligation seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money,” he said.
When an NBC News reporter asked Vance to explain the legal authority for pausing funds that Congress had already approved, it wasn’t a trick question. It was foundational — the kind of separation-of-powers basics most law students encounter early. Vance didn’t hedge. He said he was “quite confident” the administration could do it.
“We’re the ones who spend this money. Congress appropriates it. We’re the ones who actually make sure this goes to the people it ought to go to,” he said. “And inherent in that is making sure that it only goes to the people that Congress says that it should go to. We shouldn’t be sending money to fraudsters.”
It was delivered as a straightforward explanation. But to many watching, it sounded less like clarity and more like someone skipping past a core principle — the kind that isn’t supposed to be optional.
Online, critics accused Vance of flouting basic constitutional law.
“That is 100% not true. The executive branch does not have control over funding. This is absolutely illegal. They don’t give a sh-t, but it is illegal,” one post read.
Another mocked Vance’s credentials: “How did he get his law degree? From saving up coupons from breakfast cereal packets?”
Others piled on, “Nope, that’s not correct JD. Hey Yale, come and get your boy, he might need some remedial classes.”
Vance tried to frame himself as a reluctant enforcer.
“I’d reiterate, we don’t want to do this,” he said. “We don’t want to be in a situation where the state of Minnesota is being so careless with federal tax dollars that we have to turn the screws on them a little bit so that they take this fraud seriously.”
That framing, however, only seemed to invite harsher reactions as Oz stepped in to spell out the numbers while also announcing a “6 month national moratorium blocking all new enrollments for durable medical equipment — prosthesis, orthotics — supplies across the board.”
Oz said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had been notified that his state would not receive a $259 million Medicaid reimbursement this month, a figure drawn from a three-month audit in early 2025.
“We will give them the money, but we’re going to hold it and only release it after they propose an act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem,” Oz said. “If Minnesota fails to clean up the systems, the state will rack up a billion dollars of deferred payments this year.” Walz, he added, has 60 days to respond.
That explanation sharpened the sense among critics that the administration was using money as a cudgel.
“Blackmail in broad daylight,” one online reaction said.
Others listed what they called the administration’s own excesses.
“Kristi Noem is using taxpayers money to buy a jet with a queen size bed and a bar, Kash Patel used taxpayers money to party in Italy with the USA men’s hockey team, jd Vance has used taxpayers money to go on vacation once a month for almost every month he’s been Vice Pres, Trump is paying his sons in taxpayers money by giving them government contracts. This administration wants to punish Minnesota because they are standing up for themselves.”
Walz responded on X later Wednesday, rejecting the premise of the crackdown altogether. “This has nothing to do with fraud,” he wrote.
“The agents Trump allegedly sent to investigate fraud are shooting protesters and arresting children. His DOJ is gutting the U.S. Attorney’s Office and crippling their ability to prosecute fraud. And every week Trump pardons another fraudster.”
He accused Trump of weaponizing the federal government and warned, “These cuts will be devastating for veterans, families with young kids, folks with disabilities, and working people across our state.”
Oz argued Minnesota could weather the pause using its rainy-day fund. “This is not a problem with the people of Minnesota, it’s a problem with the leadership of Minnesota and other states who do not take Medicaid preservation seriously,” he said, urging worried providers to “please call your governor.”
For Minnesotans, that reassurance rang hollow.
“ILLEGAL AF. I think Minnesota has every reason to send a huge ‘F**K YOU’ in lieu of paying federal taxes at this point,” one post read.
Some commenters tied the move to Trump’s failed immigration enforcement.
“Punishing us is a game to them – cuz we hurt their feelings by not rolling over for ICE to f**K us.”
Great Job A.L. Lee & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star for sharing this story.
