‘Scorched-earth attack’: Trump freezes childcare funds in reckless attack on families

The Trump administration on Wednesday froze federal childcare funding to every state in the US after initially suspending funds for Minnesota earlier this week, a move that the state’s Democratic attorney general condemned as a “hasty, scorched-earth attack” on key social services.

Jim O’Neill, deputy secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said in a statement posted to social media that he has “activated our defend the spend system for all [Administration for Children and Families] payments” to states...