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.