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New York Liberty player Natasha Cloud made unsubstantiated claims that American taxpayers pay for free healthcare for Israeli citizens while weighing in on the current U.S. government shutdown on Tuesday – two-year mark of the Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel.
"Happy Tuesday. Our government is shut down because Republicans want to take hardworking Americans healthcare. ISRAEL has free healthcare. Paid for by none other than THE US TAX PAYERS. Like what tf are we actually talking about?" Cloud wrote on X.
Israel has its own universal healthcare system funded by a national income tax and an income-related health tax paid by its residents. However, some U.S. aid does indirectly impact Israel's healthcare sector, primarily through military aid and smaller, targeted grants for medical equipment.
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Meanwhile, Senate Democrats blocked Republicans’ bid to reopen the government for a sixth time on Wednesday as pressure and threats from the White House increased. Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have made the fight to reopen the government about healthcare, specifically through the blunt instrument of expiring tax credits under Obamacare, formerly known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Cloud's post garnered criticism and fact checking on social media.
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Cloud has garnered controversy over the last year for expressing left-leaning opinions on social media.
Cloud made several controversial posts following the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the arrest of the alleged assassin Tyler Robinson last month. Cloud even deleted an X post that prompted backlash, in which she made presumptions about the alleged killer's family's political beliefs.
"So how y'all gone twist this? Raised in a good middle class family, dad was an officer/church leader, whole family of Republicans and gun owners [and] Trump supporters," Cloud said in the deleted post.
Cloud left several other controversial posts remaining on her feed. One post made the unsubstantiated assertion that Robinson was a "far-right Republican."
"Tyler Robinson and his parents were Republicans. FAR RIGHT REPUBLICANS," Cloud wrote.
Cloud also left a post on her feed that contained a racially-charged comment about Robinson and connected the assassination to recent threats against historically Black colleges and universities. The FBI, in a statement at the time, said it is "aware of hoax threat calls" to HBCUs.
"So why were y'all threatening HBCU’s when it was a 22-year-old white boy from Utah who shot Charlie? Racism. Not politics. Racism. Difference in policy is you giving tax cuts to billionaires. Y'all dumb but I digress. Your hatred for other people is not politics," Cloud wrote.
In July, she made controversial comments about President Donald Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Cloud, who has been a vocal supporter of socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, praised the candidate while warning Trump against sending ICE to the city.
"Mamdani, my boy!" she told reporters after a New York Liberty practice.
"If Donny wants to come down here, if ICE wants to try and come down here, that's fine.
"But [they're] going to learn the hard way… New Yorkers really don't f--- around. They don't play about one another. The don't play about this city."
Cloud went on to deliver a lengthy rant about her support for socialism and belief that Trump's opposition is "getting to them."
"I just think that it's reckless of our president, reckless of this administration, but it's also exciting for us, the people, because that's when you know we're getting to them,"
In June, she seemingly reacted to the U.S. military’s strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites, writing on X, "A sad sad day," and "Grounds for impeachment."
In February, Cloud responded to President Donald Trump’s decision to eliminate several government DEI programs.
"The systems of power are working as they always were intended to work," Cloud told The Associated Press. "And it’s time to break down a system that has only been about White men."
Cloud and the Liberty's season ended on Sept. 19 when they were eliminated from the WNBA playoffs in the first round against the Phoenix Mercury.
Fox News Digital's Alex Miller contributed to this report.
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