Trump administration targets 14 blue states, DC with federal funding review

POLITICO PRO – Thursday, January 22, 2026
By Gregory Svirnovskiy

The Trump administration this week ordered a review of federal funding for 14 Democratic states and Washington, D.C., the latest step in the administration’s effort to target states that do not cooperate with the administration.

An OMB spokesperson confirmed the initiative, mandated by the agency in a memo dated on Tuesday and reviewed by POLITICO. All federal agencies except the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have been charged with responding to the request.

“This information will be used to better understand the scope of funding in certain States and localities in order to facilitate efforts to reduce the improper and fraudulent use of those funds through administrative means or legislative proposals to Congress,” OMB wrote in the memo.

The memo added that this was a “data-gathering exercise” and “does not involve withholding funds, and therefore does not violate any court order.”

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, as well as Washington, D.C., were targeted by the order.

All of the states, except for Vermont, have a Democratic governor.

Responses are due to agency resource management offices on Jan. 28. RealClearPolitics and CNN first reported details of the inquiry.

In a Michigan speech in mid-January, Trump announced plans to suspend federal funding for sanctuary cities and states at the end of the month.

“Starting February 1, we are not making any payments to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities, because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens,” he said.

Trump has already repeatedly targeted blue states’ federal funding earlier in his term.

The White House went after states that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election in a wave of funding cuts as punishment for the government shutdown last October. And in January, the administration hit five blue states with a $10 billion cut to childcare and social services funding, citing fraud concerns.

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