Trump Team Admits It Based Blue State Fraud Probe on Faulty Data

Donald Trump’s administration admitted that it spread faulty claims of health care fraud in New York state, raising questions about the federal government’s crusade to cut waste in Democratic states across the country, according to an exclusive report from The Associated Press Friday.

Last month, Mehmet Oz, the daytime television host who Trump tapped to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), claimed that last year, New York’s Medicaid program had provided five million people—nearly three-fourths of the state’s 6.8 million enrollees—with personal care services, meaning housekeeping, grooming, and meal preparation.

Oz announced on March 3 that CMS would launch a federal investigation into the apparent fraud. “Heart surgeons are trained to look at the numbers. When something doesn’t add up, you don’t ignore it, you investigate,” he said. “And right now, the numbers coming out of New York’s Medicaid program don’t add up.”

Apparently, they don’t add up because the ones Oz cited are just plain wrong.

CMS spokesman Chris Krepich told the AP that the number of New Yorkers who used personal care services last year was closer to 450,000, or between 6 and 7 percent of the state’s Medicaid enrollees.

He told the outlet that the agency had misidentified New York’s approach to applying billing codes. “CMS is committed to ensuring its analyses fully reflect state-specific billing practices and will continue to work closely with New York to validate data and strengthen program integrity oversight,” he said in an emailed statement.

Despite this revelation, Krepich said that the federal investigation of New York state’s high health care spending is still ongoing. Health analysts have argued that the state’s spending reflects higher costs for service and policies committed to providing New Yorkers with at-home care.

Not everyone is buying that this was an innocent mistake. Cadence Acquaviva, senior public information officer for the New York Department of Health, told the AP that Oz’s initial false claims about the program were “a targeted attempt to obscure the facts.”

Fiscal Policy Institute senior health policy adviser Michael Kinnucan said the discrepancy “could have been cleared up in a phone call.”

“It’s really slapdash,” he said.

The CMS administrator appeared to make other false and misleading statements in his video on X. He claimed that New York had lowered the bar for receiving personal care services to include providing aid to people who are “easily distracted”—a phrase that does not appear among the program requirements that have only become more rigorous in the past year.

New York is just one target of the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on supposed fraud in slue states. The Trump administration enjoys singling out Minnesota and California when discussing nationwide fraud, frequently equating the alleged fraud with its Democratic leadership, personified by Governors Tim Walz and Gavin Newsom.

Enthusiasm to actually fund the Gaza redevelopment proposal is waning.

The Board of Peace, a pet project cooked up by Donald Trump late last year, has received just a tiny part of the total $17 billion pledged to the charter by various countries, reported Reuters Friday.

Ten countries promised to cumulatively throw billions of dollars at the post-war remodel, which Trump has envisioned as a sprawling seaside playground similar to Dubai. Some of the nations that pledged their funds for the reconstruction effort—and the prerequisite peace plan—include Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey.

But practically none of them have actually put their money where their mouths are.

A person with direct knowledge of the peace board’s operations told Reuters that just three countries have donated to the board’s operations thus far: the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and the U.S. itself. Together, their funds amounted to less than $1 billion.

The person added that the Iran war has “affected everything” and thwarted rehabilitation efforts for the devastated region.

The board was already off to a rocky start in February, when dozens of countries convened for the project’s inaugural meeting. Trump, however, had a difficult time pronouncing his peers’ foreign names. Last month, Semafor reported that $1.2 billion of Trump’s own pledged cash for the board was actually siphoned from State Department funds, effectively forcing the American taxpayers to pay for the enormous Trumpian construction plan. At the time, Trump said he would defer $10 billion to the Gaza scheme.

Countries interested in being permanent members on the board are required to pay $1 billion for their spot.

Trump initially floated his peace board idea back in September as part of a 20-point peace plan to control Gaza, promising to include major heads of state as well as former world leaders, such as former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

But the board’s charter makes little mention of Gaza. Instead, its goals appear to be as lofty as they are broad, seeking to “promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”

The concept came under renewed scrutiny in January as Trump aggressed Greenland and NATO. The U.S. president has also invited leaders of nations with terrible track records on human rights, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, to join the board.

Longtime U.S. allies warned that the Board of Peace could upend the current world order, with several refusing to join the board at all, including France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Slovenia.

The White House revealed the designs for Donald Trump’s planned arch at Memorial Circle in Washington, D.C., Friday, and they heavily feature his preferred gold aesthetic.

The renderings were filed by the Department of the Interior along with the Commission of Fine Arts. The 250-foot arch will dwarf the Washington, D.C., skyline, sitting on a roundabout between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary.

The planned arch would be over twice the size of the Lincoln Memorial, which is about 100 feet tall, and would block views of the cemetery, one of the reasons why a veterans’ group has sued to block its construction. At 250 feet, the arch would even be larger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

“I’d like it to be the biggest one of all,” Trump said in January. “We’re the biggest, most powerful nation.”

Harrison Design’s renderings show a white monument with a golden inscription reading “One Nation Under God” and a winged statue of Lady Liberty at the top. The arch’s base, with stairs, will have statues of four golden lions, an odd choice considering that the lion has historically been a symbol of England, not the U.S.

Trump is asking for $15 million in taxpayer funds from the National Endowment for the Arts to pay for the arch, despite previously claiming it would be paid for by leftover donations from his $400 million ballroom project, and spent part of Easter Sunday driving slowly around Memorial Circle observing the site instead of attending services.

Even with the economy struggling thanks to a war he started and is now desperate to end, Trump is prioritizing building monuments to himself without getting legal permission first. His ballroom construction has already been halted, and his arch could be next. But if there’s one lesson from Trump’s second term, it’s that he’s doing what he wants without any regard for the consequences.

The “bimbofication” scandal surrounding Kristi Noem’s husband has somehow gotten even worse.

Just weeks after reporting that Bryon Noem—currently married to proudly anti-LGBTQ former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—liked to dress in drag as a large-breasted woman in his spare time, the Daily Mail has revealed that Noem had a nine-year online relationship with a large-breasted dominatrix, during which he frequently disparaged his wife and discussed transitioning from man to woman.  

“I felt he was very hypocritical for standing ten toes on American family values while he was in my messages about wanting to be a trans bimbo bitch,” said dominatrix Shy Sotomayor, now 30. Bryon first reached out to her in 2016, keeping consistent contact with her until 2020—when his ultraconservative wife became governor of South Dakota. He returned to Sotomayor in 2025. “He just popped back into my life like a little groundhog,” she said. 

“Besides the fact of who your wife is, no one is prettier than me. No one is as powerful,” a text from Sotomayor read, after she discovered his true identity.

“Fucking true. Do you want me to be a woman?” Bryon responded.

“Do you want to be a woman for me?”

“I think I do.”

Other text messages obtained by the Mail reveal Noem wanted to become a woman and change his name to Crystal, writing, “I want to be a Crystal so bad.… I want to be a woman so bad.” He discussed various plastic surgeries to make him look more feminine.

One recording has Bryon telling Sotomayor he loved her, and that he could see them “leaving our spouses for each other.” In another, he professed his need to be Sotomayor’s “trans bimbo slut.” He even alluded to “family stuff” and things being “really bad at home” around January 16, after federal agents shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis—the lowest point of his wife’s tenure at the Department of Homeland Security. 

Mr. Noem’s kink is fairly harmless as far as those things go. But his recklessness, his clear gender identity crisis, and the wanton, Bible-toting conservatism that his wife carried with her while terrorizing hundreds of people at DHS make this story all the more absurd. 

Mr. Noem has yet to comment on recent revelations. 

More than three weeks ago, Virginia legislators passed a bill that would severely restrict ICE operations in the state, preventing local police and sheriff’s departments from signing contracts with the agency unless it followed a strict set of state laws.

For some reason, Virginia’s new Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger hasn’t signed the bill—and the deadline for her to take action is Monday.

The bill attaches a number of conditions to ICE activity, requiring agents to have a judicial warrant to investigate a person’s immigration status and to enter homes, to notify local partners of their enforcement actions with at least one week’s notice, to refrain from being within 500 yards of a polling place, and to clearly identify themselves.

ICE agents would also be subject to Virginian courts if they violate state laws, and state police and prosecutors would have investigation and charging powers over “any shooting involving any agent” working with or for the agency. All of this would prompt heavy pushback from ICE and the Trump administration, who would likely refuse these conditions and end ICE contracts within Virginia.

Is that why Spanberger hasn’t taken action on the bill yet? She pulled state law enforcement out of ICE’s 287(g) cooperation program in February, but she hasn’t said anything about this bill despite it being nearly a month old. If she doesn’t veto or sign it by Monday, though, it will become law per Virginia’s constitution.

On Thursday, Spanberger vetoed a bill that would have brought a casino to Fairfax County, citing local opposition. Like the rest of the country, many Virginians also oppose ICE’s violence and legally questionable actions. Will she listen to them and sign a bill restricting ICE into law?

Kristi Noem might be fired soon from her latest position within the Trump administration.

The former Homeland Security chief has barely put in a lick of work at her new government job, sparking questions about Noem’s ongoing tenure within the Trump administration, State Department officials told the Daily Mail.

Noem was ousted from her position atop Homeland Security last month for playing a starring role in several major scandals, including a sprawling $220 million DHS advertising campaign that prominently featured her on horseback and reportedly funneled money into the pockets of her friends and allies. Her reputation—and consequently, Donald Trump’s immigration agenda—were also marred by the actions of ICE agents in Minnesota, where Noem’s subordinates killed two U.S. citizens in January.

But despite the drama, Trump was not willing to let Noem exit his administration entirely. Instead, the president demoted her to the position of special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, a multinational security coalition within the folds of the State Department formed two days after she was fired.

So far, the bloc has not achieved much under Noem’s stewardship.

At least four officials who followed Noem from DHS to the brand-new security coalition have been placed on administrative leave, unnamed sources told the Mail Thursday. The outbound officials include former deputy chief of staff Troup Hemenway, ex-deputy general counsel Giovanna Cinelli, and junior staffers Josh King and Octavian Miller.

Noem, meanwhile, took just one meeting last week via teleconference, senior State Department officials told the British gossip tabloid.

“This post was intended as a soft landing so it didn’t look like Noem was immediately being fired,” one State Department insider told the Mail. “But no one really thinks she should have this job. The State Department was not happy to have her here and the understanding is that she’s not going to be here for much longer.”

It seems that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made good on his promise to sidestep those pesky rules of engagement: The United States and Israel have reportedly attacked schools and hospitals in Iran—a serious war crime.

At least 22 schools and 17 health care facilities have been damaged as a result of Donald Trump’s reckless five-week war in Iran, according to an analysis published Thursday by The New York Times.

Most of the damage was caused by strikes in crowded neighborhoods, namely Tehran, the nation’s capital, which is as densely populated as New York City, according to the Times. In most instances, the target of the strike was unclear. It is also unclear exactly which strikes were American or Israeli.

The outlet acknowledged that this may only be a sliver of the total damage. The Iranian Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization, reported that at least 763 schools and 316 health care facilities had been damaged or destroyed as of April 2.

Attacking schools and hospitals is one of the six grave violations identified by the United Nations Security Council to protect children from armed conflict. Under international law, both schools and hospitals are protected as civilian objects.

Trump’s war began with the U.S. conducting a missile strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab that killed at least 168 children and 14 teachers. A preliminary inquiry found that the use of outdated intelligence caused the school to be labeled as a military target. On the same day, a missile strike ripped through a boys’ elementary school, killing one child.

Two students were killed in another strike on a high school in Tehran, and six people, including four children, were killed in a strike on a sports hall where a girls’ volleyball team was practicing at the time, according to Iranian state media.

Dr. Mohammad Hassan Bani Assad, the president of Gandhi Hospital in northern Tehran, told Iranian state television that bombings near health facilities forced medical staff to evacuate their patients. “We have newborn babies,” he said. “We had eight patients in the ICU, two in critical condition. Women giving birth. Embryos in our fertility department.”

Hegseth has previously accused Iran of “moving rocket launchers into civilian neighborhoods near schools, near hospitals to try to prevent our ability to strike.” But he has provided no evidence for this claim, and the Pentagon declined to comment on it.

At the same time, Hegseth has openly bragged about sidestepping the “stupid rules of engagement,” and dismantled the legal guardrails that would prevent the U.S. military from committing horrific war crimes.

President Trump took time out of his day to specifically praise defense company Palantir, causing its stock to spike on Friday.

“Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment,” the president wrote on Truth Social, even going so far as to put Palantir’s market ticker symbol in the post. “Just ask our enemies!!! President DJT.”

This blatant positive press for a private weapons manufacturer with multiple government contracts and extensive ties to the president profiting off the war he started once again raises questions of market manipulation. Last month, Trump postponed strikes on Iran just two hours before markets opened, causing skyrocketing oil prices to temporarily dip. At the time, Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf referred to Trump’s Truth Social announcements as “a setup for profit-taking.” This move by Trump appears to be no different, and the market shows that.

President Donald Trump endorsed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for reelection just days after Vice President JD Vance slammed the European Union for supposedly interfering in Hungary’s elections.

Writing on Truth Social Thursday night, Trump once again endorsed Orbán, the strongman leader who captured the imagination of conservative populists, just days before the country’s election.

“GET OUT AND VOTE FOR VIKTOR ORBÁN. He is a true friend, fighter, and WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Hungary,” Trump wrote.

But Trump’s latest endorsement comes shortly after Vance railed against foreign interference in Hungary’s elections—while stumping for Orbán in Hungary.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Orbán Wednesday, Vance said: “What has happened in the midst of this election campaign is one of the worst examples of foreign election interference that I have ever seen or ever even read about.”

No, he wasn’t talking about his unprecedented decision to actively campaign for a foreign dictator; he was talking about the European Union.

“The bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary. They have tried to make Hungary less energy-independent. They have tried to drive up costs for Hungarian consumers. And they’ve done it all because they hate this guy,” he said.

Vance insisted that he was there to “help as much as I possibly can help” with Orbán’s reelection.

“Your success is our success,” the vice president said.

Hypocrisy that’s this blatant has become a staple of the Trump administration and its shameless shilling for foreign dictators.

It’s not clear that the European Union has engaged in any election interference—certainly none more blatant than what Trump and Vance have done this week. EU officials have been careful not to publicly endorse any candidate in Hungary’s election, according to The Guardian.

As for trying to “destroy” the Hungarian economy, roughly $21 billion in EU funds to Hungary have been frozen due to concerns over Orbán’s leadership, including threats to judicial independence and human rights violations. As far as energy independence goes, Hungary opposed the EU’s decision to phase out reliance on Russian oil, even though the country benefits from the lowest energy prices in Europe thanks to solar energy production.

Vance also accused the EU of engaging in “digital censorship” by instructing social media companies what they could show to voters. In fact, the EU is investigating a range of social media companies for a variety of reasons.

Clearly, Vance has been working with Trump for too long, because he even claimed that EU officials had threatened to exact their “revenge” on Hungarian voters if the election didn’t go a certain way.

Pope Leo XIV has issued another holy missive against Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

“God does not bless any conflict,” wrote the official X account for the Chicago-born pontiff on Friday. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

“Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples,” he continued.

The message is nothing unusual out of the Vatican, except for its timing. Earlier this week, reports emerged that the Pentagon had threatened an ambassador from the Holy See in January, days after the pope made similar antiwar remarks during his State of the World address.

That month, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby reportedly summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, to a closed-door meeting at the Pentagon. The atmosphere of the occasion was anything but friendly: Pentagon officials openly threatened the religious ambassador, asserting that the Catholic Church needed to get behind the Trump administration’s global whims due to America’s military prowess.

One U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy, a period in the fourteenth century when the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission, ordering an attack on Pope Boniface VIII that led to his downfall and subsequent death, and forcing the papacy to relocate from Rome to Avignon.

The Vatican was so alarmed by the Pentagon’s warning that Pope Leo canceled his plans to visit the U.S. later in the year, reported independent journalist Christopher Hale, who noted that “many in the Vatican saw the Pentagon’s reference to an Avignon papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.”

The Vatican also rejected the White House’s invitation to host the pope for America’s 250th anniversary on July 4.

This is the pope’s second clear snub to Trump just this week. Leo met with Obama adviser David Axelrod Thursday morning, a major step toward getting the pope and the forty-fourth president in a room together. Trump has yet to meet the pope.