Boxing matches and panic: MLG’s unhinged interview raises eyebrows

In a revealing and often contradictory interview with the left-wing Source New Mexico, Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham painted a dire picture of looming budget challenges—but instead of offering meaningful solutions or taking responsibility, she doubled down on political blame games, ideological deflection, and fearmongering.

At the center of the interview is Lujan Grisham’s claim that federal Medicaid reforms under the GOP-led House could cost New Mexico between $1 billion and $3 billion, depending on how the final budget takes shape. Rather than acknowledging the fiscal necessity behind these national efforts to rein in unsustainable entitlement spending, Lujan Grisham portrayed the cuts as apocalyptic.

“People will get hurt and they will die,” she claimed dramatically, without evidence.
“We could be on the hook for up to $300 million if the cuts, as we know them, were voted on today.”

Despite this rhetoric, Republicans in Congress are pursuing modest reductions aimed at long-overdue federal spending discipline, not the wholesale elimination of Medicaid or SNAP. Nowhere in the governor’s 6,000-word monologue does she address the ballooning cost of social programs or the abuse and inefficiencies that plague them.

Instead, she frames fiscal prudence as cruelty while boasting about her own administration’s reliance on reserves to possibly delay the impact:

“My pitch to the Legislature today… is we should try to sustain to the degree that we can for a year,” she said—effectively kicking the can down the road.

While claiming to focus on solutions, Lujan Grisham repeatedly resorted to hyper-partisan attacks. She described officials from the Department of Homeland Security as “terrifying,” accused the Trump administration of targeting New Mexicans, and said of former President Trump,

“There are not two sides… He is vile and abhorrent and doesn’t seem to understand or care that he creates real risk and people are harmed.”

Ironically, while slamming Trump’s leadership, Lujan Grisham admitted her own administration is unprepared to handle the consequences of any political confrontation.

“I don’t want New Mexicans to be targeted when I may not have all the things I need to protect you adequately,” she said, before adding, “I’m not going to invite them to drive over here and get into a boxing match.”

On public safety, the governor defended her decision to send National Guard personnel into Albuquerque, denying concerns that the deployment resembled martial law.

“A tank and people in uniforms like soldiers are not coming into your neighborhoods under this administration,” she insisted, brushing off fears even as crime surges statewide and law enforcement faces a staffing crisis.
“I’m running out of state police to cover all of that additional work,” she admitted, noting 100 current vacancies.

But rather than take ownership of the public safety crisis or offer concrete plans to fix it, Lujan Grisham shifted focus to grievances with past administrations and external factors, blaming Gov. Susana Martinez’s handling of behavioral health and the layout of Albuquerque’s interstate corridors.

When asked about the state’s struggling foster care system and dysfunction within the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD), she conceded,

“We have had some missteps. There’s no question about that,”
but quickly deflected, saying,
“Nobody wants to work there.”

Throughout the interview, Lujan Grisham sought to portray herself as a pragmatic, solutions-oriented leader, yet her remarks often came off as defensive and ideologically rigid. On the Biden administration’s retreat from federal DEI enforcement amid lawsuits, she said she was pleased that her administration had been “vanilla” in response.

“We don’t violate any of those rules right now. Thank you so much for reminding us that there’s no discrimination allowed,” she said sarcastically.

Despite repeated questions, Lujan Grisham offered few policy specifics about how she plans to navigate the challenges ahead, be it in healthcare, public safety, education, or immigration. She also revealed that she’s been unable to secure a meeting with President Biden over energy matters, saying,

“I couldn’t get in to see the president. I got in to see some very nice liaisons.”

She admitted the White House refused her request to collaborate on a felony warrant task force or fentanyl drug bust efforts, instead prioritizing mass deportations. Her response?

“No, thank you. That’s not a deal I’m willing to be engaged in.”

In short, Lujan Grisham’s interview amounted to a laundry list of grievances—against Trump, Republicans, the courts, Homeland Security, and even her own agencies—punctuated by dramatic language and sparse accountability. While Republicans work to right-size bloated federal programs, the governor is more concerned with ideological purity and political positioning than pragmatic governance.

As the state faces major budget challenges and an increasingly dangerous public safety environment, the governor’s remarks raise more questions than answers—and confirm that New Mexico’s leadership remains committed to the very big-government policies that created the problems in the first place.