The Trump administration announced it would halt funding for food stamps and other hunger programs in Minnesota, just as a federal judge blocked a similar move to freeze funding for social services amid allegations of widespread fraud in the state.
Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, released a letter to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota saying she would suspend payment of $129 million in federal funding from the Department of Agriculture, citing ongoing investigations into fraud in Minnesota’s social safety net that have involved members of the Somali-American community.
In the letter, which included Trump-style insults toward Mr. Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, Ms. Rollins said the state government would have to provide “payment justifications” within the next 30 days for funding for services such as food stamps to be revived. It’s unclear what that means, and the Agriculture Department did not immediately respond to a question about what information it was requesting.
Just as Ms. Rollins posted the letter on social media, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from freezing about $10 billion in federal funding for child care and social services for Minnesota and four other Democratic-led states — New York, California, Illinois and Colorado. The Trump administration had blocked the funding by claiming without evidence that there was widespread fraud in every state. The states filed a lawsuit in response.
The move Friday by the Agriculture Department was limited to Minnesota and targeted a much smaller fund, a potential signal that the Trump administration was scaling back efforts to freeze funding in other Democratic states.
During last year’s government shutdown, the Trump administration sought to use the freeze on food stamp payments to pressure Democratic lawmakers to vote to reopen the government. Mr. Trump and his aides have repeatedly appealed court orders to tap remaining funds to pay the food stamps in full. The president had promised to use the budget impasse to slash programs favored by Democrats.
