Trump aid freeze blocked in court
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump’s attempt to freeze hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid was temporarily blocked in court on Tuesday, even as it sowed chaos throughout the government and stirred fears that it would disrupt programs that serve tens of millions of Americans.
Minutes before it was due to take effect at 5 p.m. ET (2200 GMT), a federal judge blocked Trump’s spending freeze that would have affected thousands of federal grant programs.
US district judge Loren AliKhan granted a temporary halt after several advocacy groups argued the freeze would devastate programs ranging from health care to road construction.
The court will revisit the issue on Monday.
Trump’s sweeping directive was the latest step in his effort to overhaul the federal government, which has already seen the new president halt foreign aid, freeze hiring and shutter diversity programs across dozens of agencies.
His administration also offered buyouts to federal workers on Tuesday to shrink the size of government.
Democrats castigated the funding freeze as an illegal assault on Congress’ authority over federal spending and said it was already disrupting payments to doctors and preschool teachers.
Lasting damage
Republicans largely defended the order as fulfilling Trump’s campaign promise to rein in the $6.75 trillion budget.
The Trump administration said programs delivering benefits directly to Americans would not be affected.
But Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said his office had confirmed that doctors in all 50 states were not able to secure payments from Medicaid, which provides health coverage to 70 million low-income Americans.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that the government was aware of the Medicaid portal outage and no payments had been affected.
She said the website would be back online shortly.
Health care industry officials said the interruption could cause lasting damage.
“If the federal government stops pushing funds out to state Medicaid contractors, the result would be a complete debacle, with Medicaid providers going out of business,” said Sara Ratner of health care company Nomi Health.
The White House said the freeze was needed to ensure federal aid programs are aligned with the Republican president’s priorities, including executive orders he signed ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
