By WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Turns out Donald Trump gauges his esteem for presidential predecessors by how well their portraits fit into his White House redecorating scheme. Or sometimes how well the frames around those portraits do.

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“I’m a frame person,” Trump said Tuesday during a meeting with his Cabinet. “Sometimes I like frames more than I like the pictures.”

Trump wrapped up a 90-plus-minute session by explaining how he personally worked to redecorate the Cabinet Room, seeming to take real joy in choosing which portraits were hung. The president also said he helped choose the room’s drapes and polled those present about whether he should repaint the room in gold leaf. (Cabinet members think he should.)

“I actually spent time in the vaults. The vaults are where we have a lot of great pictures and artwork. And I picked it all myself,” Trump said. “I’m very proud of it.”

The president said that meant “a lot of time, effort” and “very little money.” He even recounted having gone to Secretary of State Marco Rubio ‘s office and directing that a grandfather clock there be moved to the White House.

“As president, you have the power — if I go into the State Department, or Department of Commerce or Treasury — if I see anything that I like, I’m allowed to take it,” Trump said, drawing laughs. He offered the anecdote despite there not being any record of Trump having paid a public visit to the State Department during Rubio’s tenure.

Trump also pointed out each portrait and shared what he thought of each ex-president depicted. He started by indicating “the great Andrew Jackson ” and went from there — renewing his frequent praise for William McKinley and getting in a dig about how Bill Clinton once offered donors overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom in exchange for campaign contributions.

Here’s what Trump said about some past presidents:

James K. Polk (1845-49):

“That’s a gentleman named — and we call him — President Polk. He was sort of a real-estate guy. He was — people don’t realize — he was a one-termer. But he was a very good president. But, and I’m not sure I should be doing this, he actually gave us the state of California.”

Then Trump revealed that his choice of Polk’s picture might have had more do with the portrait’s frame being almost the same size as the frame surrounding Jackson’s portrait, which he suggested was especially aesthetically pleasing: “Polk is actually a very good president who’s got the same frame that I needed, OK.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-61):

“A very underrated president. Built the Interstate (Highway) System. And he was the toughest president, I guess, until we came along. But I don’t mind giving up that crown, because, I don’t want to be too tough on it. But we want to be humane. But he was the toughest president on immigration. He was very strong at the borders. Very, very strong. And, sometimes you can be too strong. He was strong at the borders and, during a certain period of time, there was so strong that almost every farmer in California went bankrupt. And we have to remember that. We have to work together. We have to remember that. But he was a very good president, and a very good general and a very good president and I thought he deserved a position somewhere on this floor.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45):

“He was not a Republican, to put it mildly. But he was, you know, a four-termer. He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And, if you notice, we have a lot of ramps outside. You have a ramp. People say, ‘It’s an unusual place for a ramp.’ It was because of him. He was wheelchair bound. But he was an amazing man.”

Abraham Lincoln (1861-65):

“Over there is ‘Honest’ Abe Lincoln. And that picture was in his, ugh, in his bedroom. And we thought this would be a very important place because this is where wars are ended. I’m not going to say wars are declared. I’m going to say wars are ended. OK? We’ll be positive. And, that’s the picture of Abe Lincoln from his bedroom, sat in the bedroom for many, many years. That was his favorite picture of himself. And the Lincoln Bedroom’s very famous. You remember when Bill Clinton had it and he rented it out to people. We don’t do that.”

John Adams (1797-1801):

“They were the first occupants of the White House. 1800. And John Quincy Adams, Mrs. Adams, they were the first occupants. So we have them looking at each other and, in between their stares is Abraham Lincoln trying to make peace.”

(Trump is correct that John Adams, the nation’s second president, and his wife Abigail, were the first first couple to move into the White House in 1800. But he was mistaken about John Quincy Adams, who was John and Abigail’s son and the sixth president. He served from 1825 to 1829).

William McKinley (1897-1901):

“McKinley was a great president who never got credit. In fact, they changed the name of Mount McKinley and I changed it back because he should have been — the people of Ohio, he was the governor of Ohio — the people of Ohio were very happy when I did that. I heard they were very insulted. They took the name of Mount McKinley off. That was done by Obama a little while ago and I had to change it back. I changed it back. He actually was a great president. He was a president. He was the tariff, the most, I guess since me — I think I’m gonna outdo him — but he was a tariff president. He believed that other countries should pay for the privilege of coming into our country and taking our jobs and taking our treasure. That’s the way he explained it. They took our jobs and they took our treasure. And for that he should pay. And he made them pay. And he built a tremendous fortune.”

Will Weissert covers the White House for The Associated Press.

By JESSE BEDAYN

DENVER (AP) — A funeral home owner in Colorado accused of storing nearly 190 decomposing bodies in a room-temperature building and defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 is expected to plead guilty in federal court, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

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Carie Hallford, who ran Return to Nature Funeral Home with her husband Jon Hallford, allegedly duped the Small Business Administration out of almost $900,000 in pandemic-era relief aid and cheated customers who had paid for cremations the Hallfords never performed.

Instead, the Hallfords are accused of spending the aid and customers’ payments on lavish goods — luxury cars, cryptocurrency and items from stores like Gucci — all while stashing the bodies and sending fake ashes to the families.

The Hallfords were charged with 15 fraud counts last year in federal court, where Jon Hallford already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month.

Carie Hallford is set to change her plea in federal court from not guilty in early August, and is expected to plead guilty, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado.

Hallford’s attorney, Robert Charles Melihercik, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

FILE – This combination of booking photos provided by the Muskogee County, Okla., Sheriff’s Office shows Jon Hallford, left, and Carie Hallford, the owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home. (Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)

In a separate case in state court, Jon and Carie Hallford are both charged with 191 counts of corpse abuse for allegedly stashing the bodies between 2019 and 2023 and burying the wrong body in two instances.

The building in Penrose, about a two-hour drive south of Denver, was searched in 2023. Officials discovered bodies stacked atop each other, swarms of bugs and fluid covering the floor. Families were shaken to learn their loved ones’ remains weren’t in the ashes they had spread, but were instead left decaying, some for four years.

Homicide investigators are asking for the public’s help in finding a man they say is a suspect in a fatal stabbing in Apple Valley early Sunday morning.

About 3:12 a.m. Sunday, police were called to the intersection of Pennock Avenue and 138th Street on reports of a man on the sidewalk, the Apple Valley Police Department said in a news release. When they arrived, they found the man was covered in blood with multiple stab wounds. Despite lifesaving measures, the man was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

On Tuesday, police named a suspect in that killing. They are asking for help in locating 20-year-old Aron Isait Medina Rojas. He goes by the name Medina Rojas, drives a 2018 gray Chrysler 300 with the Minnesota license plate number JPU 845,  and might be trying to escape authorities by fleeing to Mexico.

Authorities say that anyone who sees Medina Rojas should call 911. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the Apple Valley Police Department at 952-322-2323.

The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office will release the identity of the victim at a later date.

UCare has announced plans to withdraw from non-senior Medicaid coverage in 11 Minnesota counties, including Ramsey, affecting 88,000 members.

The Minneapolis-based health insurance nonprofit said it will not provide Medicaid coverage beginning Sept. 1 in Benton, Chisago, Crow Wing, Pennington, Ramsey, Roseau, Sherburne, Stearns, St. Louis, Wadena and Wright counties. The withdrawal is expected to be temporary, according to the provider.

UCare, which is contracted through the state to administer Medicaid insurance, pays for members’ insurance claims and receives a monthly payment from the state, but the state’s payment rates are not adequate, UCare communications and public relations specialist Wendy Wicks said.

“The payments are not meeting the cost of the claims that we’re receiving,” Wicks said. “So, in essence, we’ve had to scale back our enrollment to be able to serve the members we have.”

In agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Services, UCare made the decision “to offset further losses in particular counties,” according to the provider. The temporary timeframe is to be determined in partnership with the department, according to UCare.

“UCare has experienced significant losses in Medicaid because of a payment mismatch between the government payments we receive and the rising cost of care among our members,” a press release stated.

UCare started facing financial challenges in 2023, Wicks said, when more enrollees began seeking care that had been deferred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elective services like joint replacements increased and prescriptions for expensive, new GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy also increased, while government payment rates were not keeping pace, she said.

“We just need to balance our books,” Wicks said. “That’s what it will take. We have to get to a point of break-even right now.”

Wicks said UCare has been doing everything it can to reduce costs, including laying off some of its employees to reduce administrative costs.

According to UCare, the Department of Human Services began notifying members of the withdrawal last week. Those affected are members enrolled in PMAP (the Prepaid Medical Assistance Program) and MinnesotaCare plans for eligible adults under 65, children and families, according to UCare.

Medicaid plans for seniors and residents with disabilities in the 11 counties will not be impacted by the temporary withdrawal, UCare stated.

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“UCare will continue to serve more than 250,000 PMAP and MinnesotaCare members in 44 counties plus the state’s largest county, Hennepin County,” the release stated. “We remain as committed as ever to Minnesota Medicaid and are confident this short-term solution will result in long-term sustainability. We look forward to returning to these counties in the future.”

Each county impacted by the withdrawal has at least two other health plan options, including Blue Cross Blue Shield and Medica, according to UCare.

“UCare will work with DHS and their enrollees’ new health plans to assist with transitions of care as people move to their new health plans,” the Department of Human Services stated.

Minnesota’s HMO continuity of care statute requires health plans to allow people to continue to see their current provider for up to 120 days if they are in the middle of a course of treatment, according to the department.

Enrollees should call their provider to ensure that they are in network with their new health plan, the department stated.