'Illegal Sabotage': Medicaid Payment Portals Down Across All 50 States After Trump Order

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dodged the question numerous times during the Trump administration's first press briefing on Tuesday: Will Medicaid be one of the federal programs impacted by the Office of Management and Budget's recently announced funding freeze on grants and loans?

Leavitt told reporters numerous times that "funds that go to individuals" will not be affected by the OMB's order and said she would get a full list of the impacted programs to the press after the briefing, refusing to answer when one journalist pointed out that many impacted programs "pass on benefits to people."

When one reporter asked if she was "guaranteeing here that no individual now on Medicaid would see a cutoff because of the policy," Leavitt said she would "check back on that."

But before the briefing was over, numerous Democratic lawmakers were sharing reports that Medicaid portals in all 50 states were in fact down.

"Just confirmed that the Trump administration shut down the Medicaid portal for Florida," said U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.). "There are over 3.8 MILLION Floridians on Medicaid."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) confirmed that "Medicaid payment system has been turned off" in his state, with doctors and hospitals unable to be compensated for care provided to low-income people, children, and people with disabilities who receive healthcare through the program, while Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said the same about New Mexico.

On the Payment Management Services website at the Department of Health and Human Services, a message read: "PAYMENT DELAYS: Due to executive orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments, PMS is taking additional measures to process payments. Reviews of applicable programs and payments will result in delays and/or rejections of payments."

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said his staff had confirmed that Medicaid portals in "all 50 states" were affected by the order, which the OMB said was driven by the Trump administration's desire to ensure federal resources are not used to "advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and Green New Deal social engineering policies."

Noting that 41% of all births in the U.S. are covered by Medicaid, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) emphasized that the entire Republican Party is "backing this illegal sabotage"—freezing funds that provide nearly 80 million people with healthcare coverage as well as those that keep Head Start early childhood education programs, clinical cancer research trials, food assistance for senior citizens, and homeless shelters running.

"Overnight, Republicans are destroying healthcare for millions of Americans—and it isn't just [President Donald] Trump," said Ocasio-Cortez. "They are ALL in on it. Every one."

In a video posted to social media, Murphy accused Trump of a "brazen, transparent effort to seize power"—marked by his pardon of more than 1,000 people who stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to overturn his 2020 election loss and his firing of at least a dozen inspectors general, as well his "government funding shutdown."

"This is an immediate crisis for kids, for public safety, for our seniors, for our healthcare system," said Murphy. "And why? Because Donald Trump is trying to seize power."

Ocasio-Cortez agreed, saying Trump's order has thrown the country into "a constitutional crisis."

"Trump is holding all the nation's hospitals and vital services hostage to seize power from Congress and hand it over to billionaires," said the congresswoman. "It's a massive, illegal power grab that the House and Senate have a sworn duty to stop."