Pushed by reporters last Friday, Trump vowed no big cuts in Medicaid with an important caveat: “unless we can find some abuse or waste.” Any big program will undoubtedly have some level of waste, but that’s relatively small potatoes that wouldn’t begin to address the GOP's budget dilemma unless they concoct a phony definition of waste and abuse.

So far, experts say it's uncertain how Medicaid funding could be disrupted by the funding freeze. Medicaid serves low-income Americans who often do not qualify for health insurance via their work. More than 74 million Americans were enrolled in Medicaid in the fall of 2024 and could be impacted by the funding freeze.

After President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on federal grants and loans, Medicaid's portals went down Tuesday afternoon, causing recipients to panic about their health insurance coverage. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the Medicaid outage Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, but said payments would not be impacted.