RFK Jr. Hands Medicaid Data to ICE as It Ramps Up War on Immigrants

The Trump administration is giving the personal data of Medicaid-enrolled immigrants to the Department of Homeland Security, according to the Associated Press. The Department of Homeland Security forced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—which is part of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services—to hand over personal information, an unprecedented move.

This is yet another clear invasion of privacy aimed to help ICE find immigrants’ names, homes, and jobs and identify immigrants receiving aid so that they can revoke green card applications and target permanent residency seekers. 

Most of the data covers residents of California, Illinois, Washington state, and Washington, D.C.—all states that let noncitizens enroll in Medicaid, and all states that are seeing ramped-up ICE raids and protests in response.  

CMS tried to fight DHS’s request, arguing that they’d be violating the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act of 1974, and in general going against “longstanding policy” of not giving people’s personal Medicaid data to a department that has nothing to do with Medicaid just because they are immigrants.  

“We deeply value the privacy of all Californians,” Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “This potential data transfer brought to our attention by the AP is extremely concerning, and if true, potentially unlawful, particularly given numerous headlines highlighting potential improper federal use of personal information and federal actions to target the personal information of Americans.”

MAGA seems to be split on whether continuing to fight and fund Israel’s wars against the rest of the Middle East is “America First” or not.

Israel bombed multiple cities and nuclear facilities in Iran Thursday night, dragging its U.S. benefactor into a war against what Prime Minister Netanyahu swears is an imminent nuclear threat from Iran. And while Trump and most GOP officials have fallen in line, a recent X poll suggests disharmony among the base on this issue.

“Explain it to me like I am 5 years old,” wrote MAGA loyalist Laura Loomer. “How is it not AMERICA FIRST to congratulate those who just made sure Islamists who chant “DEATH TO AMERICA” and who openly plotted to assassinate President @realDonaldTrump never have an opportunity to have a nuke? Explain it to me.”

Loomer was rebuked by some of her own fellow MAGA coalition members.

“Explain to me, how is it America First to openly support those who blatantly disregarded our diplomatic efforts in order to get us dragged into another war on behalf of them?” one “America First” user replied. “You can’t be America first and support billions of dollars going to a foreign nation to sponsor their war. You can’t be America first if you want our servicemen to die on behalf of another nation.”

“Iran has ‘almost had a nuke’ for 30+ years. Read ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf.’ Not crying for Iran. Screw em!” an account named “Silent Patriot” responded. “But I also haven’t forgotten all the children abused by the Mossad/CIA controlled Epstein/Maxwell. This is not good guys vs bad guys. Bad killing bad.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham giddily egged on Israel’s attack. “Game on. Pray for Israel,” he posted shortly after Israel bombed Iran multiple times.

“War pig says what?” a prominent MAGA account replied.

Using taxpayer dollars to help Israel start a war is certainly not “America First,” and neither are most of Trump’s actions compared to his rhetoric. Only time will tell if his base actually catches on.

A federal judge blocked portions of a Trump administration order Friday that would have required voters to show proof of citizenship at the voting booth.

In a 44-page memorandum, U.S. District Judge Denise Casper ordered that adding layers of difficulty to the voting process would only harm eligible voters by adding significant barriers before they can cast their ballots.

Casper further noted that Donald Trump’s order was an executive overreach and that the authority to set new election requirements rests with Congress.

“There is no dispute (nor could there be) that U.S. citizenship is required to vote in federal elections and the federal voter registration forms require attestation of citizenship,” Casper wrote. “The issue here is whether the president can require documentary proof of citizenship where the authority for election requirements is in the hands of Congress, its statutes … do not require it, and the statutorily created [Election Assistance Commission] is required to go through a notice and comment period and consult with the states before implementing any changes to the federal forms for voter registration.”

One of five provisions in the executive order blocked by Casper mandated that the Election Assistance Commission collect and record information on provided documentary proof of citizenship in the national voter registration form. Casper’s ruling also intervened in a White House decree that ordered the secretary of defense to update the absentee application for overseas voters or Americans in the military, which under Trump’s direction would have required such voters to provide proof of citizenship as well as proof of eligibility to vote in their respective states.

“Neither the Constitution nor any statute grants the president the authority to enact” such an order, the judge wrote.

Since Trump lost the 2020 election, he and his allies have obsessed over contrived claims of voter fraud—a statistical nonissue in U.S. elections. For instance, a statewide audit out of Georgia, the epicenter of Trump’s baseless theory, revealed in September that just 20 noncitizens out of 8.2 million residents existed on the state’s voter roll. Out of those 20, only nine participated in elections, years ago, before ID was required as a part of the voter verification process. The other 11 individuals were registered but never actually voted, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Critics argue that restrictions on the front end of the electoral process—such as one-day voting and requiring day-of voter ID, which Trump pledged to apply in December—would minimize voter turnout and limit the democracy’s ability to represent its constituents. This would especially be true in high-density areas like the nation’s biggest cities, where those stipulations would significantly drain resources (i.e., boost the number of volunteers required) and require more time to process, potentially leading to delays.

Trump’s continued focus on the nativist nonissue belies the fact that it is, of course, already illegal and impossible for noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections, including in Georgia, where the individuals who fell through the cracks in the system accounted for just 0.00024 percent of the state’s voting population.

Meanwhile, Trump has said nothing about campaign finance reform, an electoral issue that has, over the last few decades, increasingly placed politicians in the pockets of major corporations and billionaire donors. Instead, the president’s allies have actually lobbied him to loosen campaign finance laws, raise limits on campaign contributions, and oppose Federal Election Commission reforms that would help the agency enforce the laws regarding the country’s elections.

Israeli officials say that their country’s deadly military strike on Iran was rubber-stamped by Donald Trump, despite his claims to have had nothing to do with it.

Just hours before Israel’s massive operation Thursday targeting Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear facilities, military officials, and nuclear scientists, Trump claimed he was against an attack because it would “blow” ongoing diplomatic talks, which were set to continue this weekend.

Two Israeli officials told Axios, however, that Trump was lying and the president had only pretended to publicly oppose Israel’s military operation to “eliminate” ballistic missile and nuclear facilities, which was reportedly eight months in the making.

“We had a clear U.S. green light,” one Israeli official told Axios.

In a phone call with Netanyahu Monday, Trump reportedly urged the Israeli prime minister to stop chatter about a potential strike on Iran. But Israeli officials told Axios that the call had really been about coordination ahead of the attack, and Netanyahu’s aides had lied to reporters.

The New York Times reported in April that Israel, which is not a participant in the ongoing nuclear talks, had made plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites that were waved off by Trump, who wanted to continue negotiating with Tehran. The White House made it clear, at least publicly, that if Israel wanted to strike it would do so alone.

On Wednesday, some U.S. personnel were evacuated from the region, including from Baghdad and Bahrain, citing security concerns. When asked what Israeli officials had told him that prompted the evacuations, Trump said, “They didn’t tell me anything, but I said look, there’s a chance of massive conflict.”

For a guy who says he had nothing to do with the attack, Trump has been quick to use the strike as leverage.

“Iran should have listened to me when I said—you know I gave them, I don’t know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61. They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late. It will be too late for them,” the president told CNN.

He also said that the strike had killed some of the people who’d been part of nuclear talks. “You know the people I was dealing with are dead, the hard-liners,” Trump added. Iran’s top negotiator in the nuclear talks, Ali Shamkhani, has been confirmed dead.

When asked by The Wall Street Journal Friday what kind of heads-up Israel had given the U.S. about the impending strike, Trump replied, “Heads-up? It wasn’t a heads-up. It was, we know what’s going on.”

Israel bombed several Iranian cities and nuclear sites early Friday, and Donald Trump has done nothing but inflame the situation.

In a phone call with ABC News’s Jonathan Karl, the president referred to the attacks as “excellent,” remarking that Iran “got hit hard, very hard,” and that there was “a lot more” to come.

In early morning posts to Truth Social about the escalating situation, Trump claimed that he had pushed Iran for months to come to terms on a new nuclear deal and warned that—if the nation refused—there would be “nothing left.”

“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” Trump wrote. “I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.”

The president also promised that Israel would continue to strike Iranian territory with American-made weapons.

“I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come—And they know how to use it,” he continued.

“Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse! There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. God Bless You All!” Trump said.

In a separate post, Trump claimed that he had given Iran 60 days to make a deal approximately two months ago. “They should have done it!” he wrote, adding that the country now has a “second chance” to return to the negotiating table. But Iran has already said it would not participate in nuclear talks this weekend in the wake of the attack.

Iran has argued that it is seeking uranium for peaceful purposes. Iranian officials announced Thursday afternoon their intentions to expand their nuclear program, despite facing a censure from a U.N. nuclear watchdog for failing to uphold nonproliferation obligations. Israeli strikes have so far killed four senior Iranian commanders, including Hossein Salami, the commander in chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian state media confirmed late Thursday, though regional sources told Reuters that up to 20 senior commanders had been killed.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, said there would be “severe punishment” for the strikes.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to Fox News to do what he does best: spread wildly incendiary misinformation about vaccines and public health.

RFK Jr. was asked about his decision to fire the entire vaccine advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a move that directly contradicted a confirmation process promise and set off alarms for experts.

“Ninety-seven percent of the people on the committee had conflicts of interest. This is a committee that has … we’ve gone up from 11 vaccines in 1986. Today, children get between 69 and 92 vaccines before they’re 18. Not one of those vaccines—”

“That’s really high,” Fox News’s Martha McCallum said. “Those are not all mandatory.”

“Those are all mandatory, and the reason there’s 69 to 92 is some of the brands require three doses, some of them require four. But none of them have been safety tested. Except for the Covid vaccine, the only vaccine on the schedule that has gone through placebo-controlled trials prior to licensure was the Covid vaccine, so nobody has any idea what the risk profiles are on these products. And we don’t know whether they have anything to do with the epidemic of chronic disease, almost all the chronic disease.… These are products designed to deregulate your immune system, change your immune system for life. And we are now having an epidemic of immune dysregulation in our country, and we don’t have an idea … we’re gonna investigate.”

Kennedy Jr. is exaggerating about the number of vaccines before 18, which is closer to between 24 and 50. And many medical professionals have already stated their opposition to this placebo-controlled testing.

“The first vaccine for a disease is already proven safe through a placebo-controlled trial,” Senator Bill Cassidy—who was recently betrayed by Kennedy— told The Washington Post. “Updating that vaccine does not require a new placebo-controlled trial to determine its safety. To require a placebo group would deny those patients access to the vaccine that has already been found safe.”

There’s also the fact that this kind of testing would be intentionally deceptive to patients. “Ethics must be taken into account when you set up a study,” physician Stanley Plotkin said. “Can I ethically agree to having people acquire the disease because they receive a placebo?” We should expect more delusional, crank-adjacent theories from perhaps our most important public sector.

Reactions are rolling in after Senator Alex Padilla was kicked out of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday. 

The California Democrat was dragged out of the room  by DHS officers as he tried to raise a question about ICE’s presence in his home state at the press conference.

“I am Senator Alex Padilla,” he yelled as two agents grabbed him. Padilla was then forced out of a pair of double doors and was heard shouting, “Hands off!” Padilla was then forced face down on the ground and handcuffed by three FBI agents.

The right is framing Padilla as a violent stranger who “lunged” at Secretary Noem. 

“Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem,” the Department of Homeland Security posted from its official X account. “Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands. @SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately. Secretary Noem met with Senator Padilla after and held a 15 minute meeting.”

“Was Padilla there to protest the enforcement of the law? Was he there to protest law and order? I’m not quite sure,” said Fox News anchor John Roberts. 

“When we’re voting in the United States Senate, or an important legislation for the country, he’s not here, is that right?” Republican Senator John Barasso said to reporters when asked if he’d seen the video of Padilla’s arrest. He then asked them if they’d seen golfer Rory McIlroy’s drive. 

“Gavin Newsom watched this video of a sitting Democrat senator being removed for barging into a briefing and thinks the law enforcement officers are the ones out of control …,” the Republican National Committee Research account wrote on X in response to Newsom’s denunciation of Padilla’s arrest. 

“Chuck Schumer is ‘sickened’ by Alex Padilla getting removed from a briefing he forcibly interrupted but not by the violent riots attacking ICE agents in major cities?” they wrote again. Liberals are united in their condemnation. 

“I never thought I would imagine having to stand here and discuss what I saw today. A United States senator in his own community, in the city in which he grew up, elected under the authority of the people, stepping forward to get answers to legitimate questions—and we see him being thrown to the ground after being removed from a room forcibly, and put into handcuffs by multiple people,” Senator Cory Booker said on the Senate floor, shortly after the incident. “This to me is such an abuse of authority; it is a violent act, and there can be no justification of seeing a senator forced to their knees, laid flat on the ground, their hands twisted behind their back, and being put into restraints.… This is a pattern and a practice, this is not an isolated incident.” 

“United States Senator Alex Padilla was representing the millions of Californians who are demanding answers to this Administration’s actions in Southern California,” former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on X. “This is a shameful and stunning abuse of power.”

“Senator Alex Padilla is a good man and principled public servant. The brazen and aggressive manhandling of Senator Padilla by the Trump administration is a sickening disgrace,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries chimed in. “Anyone who assaulted the Senator should be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

Senator Padilla had his own press conference to set the record straight. 

“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security response to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers, out in the Los Angeles community, and throughout California, and throughout the country” he said. “We will hold this administration accountable.” 

The Department of Homeland Security is already lying about having Senator Alex Padilla forcefully removed from Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in Los Angeles Thursday.

In posts on X, the official DHS account and Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement attempting to justify wrestling Padilla to the ground and handcuffing him.

“Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem,” the statement read.

“Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands. @SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.”

But in a video of the altercation from Padilla’s office, the senator could be heard clearly identifying himself.

“Hands off! I’m Senator Alex Padilla, and I have questions for the secretary,” said the California Democrat as a security guard pushed him out of the room.

In a statement later in the day, Padilla confirmed that he hadn’t been arrested.

“I was not arrested. I was not detained. I will say this. If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth won’t say that a judge can order him to stop using federal forces for immigration enforcement.

A federal judge was set to hold a hearing Thursday after the court denied California Governor Gavin Newsom’s request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the Trump administration from using Marines and the federalized National Guard to “enforce immigration laws and other civil laws on the streets of our cities.”

While testifying before the House Armed Services Committee Thursday, Hegseth was asked point blank by Representative Ro Khanna whether he would abide by a potential federal district court ruling ordering him to end the use of federal forces in Los Angeles.

“Well, this is a pending—this is a pending situation,” Hegseth replied.

“Sure. Will you agree, though—it’s not my legal view, it’s not your legal view that makes the decision in America. It’s the federal judiciary,” Khanna continued. The California Democrat then repeated his question but still got no answer.

“What I will tell you is my job, right now, is to ensure that the troops we have in Los Angeles are capable of supporting law enforcement,” Hegseth said. “And we know that we’ve got the constitutional and statutory authority to do that.”

“That’s fine, but can you just assure us that you’ll abide by the decisions of the courts?” Khanna said.

“We’ve always looked to the decisions of the courts,” Hegseth replied, again evading the actual question.

“Well, the vice president has said that he doesn’t believe that the courts should be respected in military matters,” Khanna replied. JD Vance has previously said that a judge had no right to challenge a military operation.

“This is not my lane, but we also recognize that the way that the judiciary has expanded its powers during the Trump administration—” Hegseth said, echoing right-wing criticism of supposed judicial overreach.

Khanna asked whether Hegseth intended to abide by a ruling from the Supreme Court, and the district court before that.

“What I can say is we should not have local judges determining foreign polices or national security policies for the country,” Hegseth said.

This has become a common defense for lawlessness by the Trump administration, which has argued that the courts have no place in challenging practically any aspect of the president’s agenda, from deportations to tariffs. As desperate as members of the Trump administration are to dismiss federal judges as so-called “local,” they remain a crucial pillar in the country’s checks and balances, as set out in the U.S. Constitution.

Over the weekend, the Trump administration bypassed Newsom’s authority and deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and then 700 Marines to Los Angeles to assist ICE agents conducting sweeping immigration raids. Trump said Thursday that he deserved thanks for blatantly violating the state’s sovereignty, while Newsom has claimed that Trump’s latest efforts are the sign of severe mental decline,

California Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a press conference in Los Angeles featuring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday. The secretary was present to discuss recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the area.

The lawmaker was manhandled out of the room as he attempted to ask Noem a question about ICE.

“I am Senator Alex Padilla,” he can be heard saying as two men grabbed him.

When he was pushed out of a pair of double doors, Padilla was heard shouting, “Hands off!” Multiple men were involved in shoving the lawmaker, before Padilla was handcuffed on the ground by three FBI agents.

Padilla was reportedly ushered out of the room after he told Noem that “you insist on exaggerating,” according to NBC Los Angeles.

The incident didn’t appear to bother Noem, who continued speaking with reporters without missing a beat.

“We are not going away,” Noem said, moments before Padilla was removed, according to Independent reporter Justin Baragona. “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin reported that he and his team witnessed Padilla being “taken to the ground” and detained outside the room. Another angle of the incident showed an FBI agent warning the videographer that recording was not allowed in the hallway, citing FBI regulations.

“When I leave here I’ll have a conversation with him, but I think everyone would agree that wasn’t appropriate,” Noem said.

“When I leave here I’ll find him and visit and find out really what his concerns were. I think everybody in America would agree that that wasn’t appropriate, that if you wanted to have a civil discussion, especially as a leader, a public official, that you would reach out and try to have a conversation,” she added.

The lawmaker’s detention follows days of protests across Los Angeles, in which thousands of Angelinos have taken to the streets to visibly reject the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda.

Protesters have blocked off major freeways, trashed Waymos (self-driving cars), and organized outside City Hall and the Metropolitan Detention Center. In reaction, law enforcement officials shot rubber bullets and fired tear gas and flash bangs into crowds of civilians. The FBI added protesters suspected of throwing rocks at police cars to its Most Wanted list and issued an ominous threat Monday to intervene in the anti-Trump display without guidance from California or the White House.

Hours later, California sued the federal government to roll back Trump’s deployment of 4,100 National Guard members that state authorities said had not been authorized or requested to handle the protests. California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed Trump’s decision as “illegal” and a “brazen abuse of power” that had only further “inflamed a combustible situation.

“When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard. he made that order apply to every state in this nation,” Newsom said. “This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next.”

In another decision that nobody responsible for overseeing peace in Los Angeles wanted, Trump additionally deployed 700 Marines to the City of Angels, an initiative that Defense officials revealed Tuesday would cost U.S. taxpayers $134 million.

The president had also claimed that the Los Angeles Police Department had requested the White House’s assistance—a claim that Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell vehemently refuted.

Trump also endorsed threats to arrest Newsom when the California governor began to hit back, telling reporters that he’d “do it.”

This story has been updated.