January 06, 2026 09:45 AM UTC

The Hits Keep Coming As Trump Ramps Up The Retribution Against Colorado

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• by: Colorado Pols

CNN reports on the latest retaliatory move by the Trump administration against a list of blue states headed once again by the administration’s special target for such “harsh measures,” your and our state of Colorado:

The Trump administration is freezing $10 billion in funds for social services and child care in five Democratic-led states, according to a Health and Human Services official, with the agency suggesting without evidence that the funding has been used fraudulently.

The freeze, first reported by the New York Post, will impact California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, according to news reports confirmed by HHS.

HHS will cut more than $7 billion in funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance to households, along with more than $2 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund. The department will also hold around $870 million from the Social Services Block Grant.

The pretext for this action appears to be the unfolding scandal over child care funding in Minnesota, but to be clear:

There has been no evidence to suggest the other four Democratic states have suffered widespread fraud. [Pols emphasis]

While the allegations of welfare fraud in Minnesota are significant both in terms of the amount of money and number of people allegedly involved, there is no reason to believe there is any similar activity occurring in any of these other states. Either way, rooting out fraud does not require freezing all funds, which punishes the overwhelming majority of honest beneficiaries for the actions of a fraudulent few. Excepting Minnesota, the states targeted by this latest funding freeze are the three biggest blue states in the country and Colorado, a state that as readers know the President has personally targeted for retaliation in an effort to induce the release of convicted felon election denier ex-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters. Trump’s explicit threats against our state now form the backdrop to every adverse decision the administration makes against Colorado, and the collateral damage is piling up rapidly after the veto of the unanimously-approved Arkansas Valley Conduit project and denial of disaster relief funds after last year’s fires and floods.

Freezing welfare funds in blue states may seem less risky for Trump in the short term, but for vulnerable Colorado Republicans like freshman Rep. Gabe Evans, these punitive actions by the Trump administration are, or at least should be a political five-alarm fire. Evans himself has proven to be an unswerving defender of the administration, even when it means making excuses for unquestionably harmful decisions–not to mention Evans’ own votes to slash funding for health care, food assistance, and other priorities in his working-class district.

At some point, even for a devoted defender of Trump’s every move like Gabe Evans, this nakedly corrupt retribution campaign against our state is going to become politically untenable.