Good morning and Happy Thursday. Yet another wretched week in the Trump hellscape is nearly over.
After Tuesday night’s deplorable display of racism, xenophobia, and a sociopathic aversion to the truth, Donald Trump has fired his latest salvo at the State of Minnesota, instructing the federal government to withhold Medicaid funds due to "fraud” allegations.
The Trump administration is withholding more than $250 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota, claiming widespread fraud as it escalates a pressure campaign on the state’s Democratic leadership.
Vice President JD Vance announced the extraordinary move on Wednesday, blaming Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for failing to adequately police the safety-net program and warning the pause would continue until the state submitted an acceptable plan for targeting its misuse.
If you’re like me, you might say, “Wait a minute, Minnesota isn't the only state where a small number of people have tried to take advantage of the system.” After all, former NFL quarterback Brett Favre has been accused of taking part in a welfare scheme that literally took money from the poorest children in Mississippi. Why doesn’t Trump care about that fraud?
Well, the official answer is that the Mississippi welfare fraud case involved state funds, while the fraud in Minnesota involved federal funds. But the real answer is that 1) the governor of Mississippi didn't have the gall to run against Trump, 2) there isn't a group of immigrants Trump can demonize in the Mississippi case, and 3) Mississippians didn't embarrass Trump on an international stage by pushing back against his fascist secret police.
Keep in mind, the Trump administration has tried this before. Back in December, Trump ordered the USDA to withhold SNAP benefits from Minnesota for the same reason — fraud. In that case, the USDA tried to force Minnesota to recertify all its SNAP recipients in its four most populous counties — via face-to-face interviews — by January 16, 2026, or lose its SNAP funding.
Federal Judge Laura Provinzino granted Minnesota a prelminary injunction on multiple grounds, including finding that the USDA’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious.”
First, the USDA did not offer a “satisfactory explanation” for its action. The only justification for the demands made in the Recertification Letter is that there is “highly publicized and ongoing fraud affecting federally funded benefits” in Minnesota but referenced only the “Feeding Our Future fraud scheme” that “exploited” the USDA’s child nutrition programs.
But as Minnesota points out, and the USDA does not contest, the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme “ended years ago, did not involve SNAP, and exploited the [COVID-19] pandemic.” It cannot therefore constitute a reasonable basis for the Recertification Letter’s demands as it provides no rational connection between the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme and the potential of fraud within SNAP, an entirely different entitlement program.
And the real dragging of the USDA comes in a footnote:
Nor does the USDA offer such explanation in its Enforcement Letter written a month after the initial Recertification Letter. Nonetheless, the USDA offers no evidence to corroborate its claim of fraud in Minnesota’s administration of SNAP. The USDA states, in a conclusory manner, that based on its review of data gathered from the SNAP Information Database, it has determined that “States with a county-administered program, like Minnesota, are more likely to have higher rates of fraud, waste, and abuse than States that do not delegate administration of SNAP to the county level.”
Even if that broad determination is true, the USDA conspicuously fails to make any specific allegation, much less provide evidence, of such “fraud, waste, and abuse” within any of the Recertification Counties. The USDA also purports to have developed concerns regarding Minnesota’s payment error rate of 8.98% in fiscal year 2024, which exceeds the 6% statutory threshold to trigger a requirement to develop a “corrective action plan.” But Minnesota developed a corrective action plan, which the USDA approved…
While Medicaid and SNAP are different programs that address different needs, they are similar in that both distribute funds appropriated by Congress through cooperation between the state and federal governments. Like the USDA, the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicaid, can’t just yell “FRAUD!” and use that as a basis for withholding funds, though they’re certainly going to try.
Of course, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who took the Hippocratic Oath as a physician to “first, do no harm," is signing off on this effort. I’m still waiting for Oprah to apologize for introducing us to him and Dr. Phil.
“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,” Oz said.
“Any delay in services is going to be, should be laid at the at the seat of Governor Walz. I believe he will take this seriously,” he continued.
Oz said the administration is “confident” that people will not be hurt in Minnesota, noting the state has a rainy day fund.
I’m sure withholding Medicaid from already disadvantaged people will have zero adverse consequences whatsoever.
In other news: More sleazebags bite the dust; Kash is terrible at everything, including lying to America; Kansas demands its trans community surrender their driver’s licenses; and The High Note.
Before we get to the rest of the news, please enjoy this video of Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) getting left hanging by Donald Trump, despite his best efforts. The hang dog look on his face when he gets snubbed!
Anyway, onward.
More sleazebags allowed to “resign” after showing up in the Epstein files
Yesterday, I watched a doc on Peacock called Prince Andrew: Banished. I mostly watched it because I love luxuriating in the tawdry scandals of the royals, but it actually turned out to be really informative. The premise of the entire doc is how the former Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Jeffrey Epstein found each other, and how they ended up in this disgusting pedo sex triangle. It was pretty illuminating and worth a watch.
Of course, it hasn’t gone without notice that, across the pond, people like Andrew and the former British Ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, have been arrested, while their American counterparts are being allowed to "resign” from their positions. Yesterday, former Nebraska Governor Bob Kerrey and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers resigned from the board of a Lincoln-based energy company and Harvard University, respectively. Kerrey gave this excuse:
Kerrey's name appears several times in the Epstein files, but many of the documents are conversations between third parties trying to coordinate schedules. That includes a meeting in February 2013, which Kerrey said he did attend.
"I met with him in 2013 as an honorable request that came from the CEO and the provost of a start-up, the university that I was working with," Kerrey said.
Okay, well, he was charged with paying minors for sex in 2008 and eventually pled guilty to a reduced charge, so you probably should have said "no” to that meeting, Bob. It’s stunning how many of these men don’t understand what they did wrong. “I mean, he's a billionaire. What else was I supposed to do?”
Meanwhile, the mainstream media continues to get on board with the missing FBI interview docs in the Epstein files, with the NYT reporting on it yesterday.
Now, House Democrats, led by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Dan Goldman (D-NY), are demanding a special counsel be appointed to investigate Attorney General Pam Bondi for lying when she told Congress that there were no allegations of wrongdoing by Donald Trump in the files. Couldn't happen to a nicer person, and I hope she takes Deputy AG Todd Blanche down with her.
Kash is so bad at this
Kash Patel and the FBI claimed that Kash definitely did not spend $75,000 of taxpayer money just so he could watch an Olympic hockey game and shotgun beers with the numbskulls on the US Men's team. He had very important meetings in Italy! The hockey just happened to also be in Italy! This interview is over!
Welp, someone at the FBI hates Kash as much as the rest of America, because they leaked his itinerary to the NYT.
The F.B.I. director Kash Patel’s four-day trip to Italy — culminating in a celebratory beer swig with the U.S. hockey team at the Milan Olympics — included several hours of work meetings, a handful of meet-and-greets, hours of down time, private meals and “cultural activities,” according to an internal schedule obtained by The New York Times.
The taxpayer-funded visit to the Games reignited the firestorm over Mr. Patel’s use of government resources, which intensified on Tuesday when Senate Democrats aired new allegations against the director, citing an anonymous whistle-blower inside the Trump administration.
***
Mr. Patel has fiercely defended his Italy trip, saying it was scheduled months ago and necessary to fortify his relationship with the F.B.I.’s European partners. He has questioned his critics’ love of hockey, and suggested they were insufficiently stoked by the U.S. team’s gold medal victory.
God, he’s the worst. Oh, and he ended his day yesterday by firing 10 FBI employees who were involved in investigating Trump’s stealing of classified documents and hiding them in the bathroom of Mar-a-Lago. Very serious country we have here.
Kansas demands trans folks surrender their driver’s licenses
This is horrific. We need federal legislation protecting the trans community like, yesterday.
Disgusting behavior.
The High Note
Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.
Let'ss all take a second to appreciate exactly how dumb Sen. (GAH) Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) is. Here he is talking about Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei.
Mullin: We are not wanting regime change, but the person that's leading this effort is the ayatollah. Remember in 1979, when he came to power, he was saying that he wanted to be a nuclear Iran
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2026-02-26T02:28:50.970Z
Yeah, not the same Ayatollah, dumbass. It's a title, not a first name.
Sometimes I think he’s just trolling us. But no, he really is this stupid.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2026-02-26T02:23:14.621Z
Oklahoma, you have elected a dipshit to the US Senate.
Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
