Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s unconstitutional freeze of programs initiated by Congress

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy with Sens. Pat Murray and Amy Klobuchar to his left declared that Trump's actions were nothing less than an unconstitutional attempt to seize power. | YouTube

WASHINGTON –  A federal judge late yesterday temporarily blocked a wave of illegal shutdowns of congressionally funded programs covering almost all aspects of life in the U.S.  Lawmakers, including senators and House members, declared that his actions had plunged the country into a constitutional crisis.

All the programs he froze were set up by acts of Congress. The actions proved once again that Trump is willing to do anything, including trash the Constitution, to establish his own dictatorial power. The actions resulted in a firestorm of opposition even before the court ruling temporarily blocking the action.

The AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement:

“The Trump administration’s move to freeze federal funding is unprecedented and illegal and will immediately harm working families across this country. The Office of Management and Budget’s memo indicates that essential programs will stop operating as soon as 5 p.m. Tuesday, including food assistance for people living in poverty; shelter for homeless veterans; health care for babies and nursing homes for seniors with Medicaid; Head Start preschool programs for children; rent assistance and support for low-income families to heat their homes; fire response and disaster relief for people who have lost everything; and state workplace safety programs for workers on the job. The administration’s move also pauses funding for infrastructure and manufacturing projects, throwing tens of thousands of good union jobs into jeopardy.

“This is about our livelihoods, our families and our communities, all of which are at risk with this freeze. It’s also about our money—those programs are funded by taxpayers and appropriated by our elected representatives in Congress.

“The Constitution prohibits the president from blocking that money, no matter what a bunch of out-of-touch billionaire CEOs and the authors of Project 2025 may think. We urge President Trump and his administration to reverse this decision immediately, before the very working people he claims to care about are hurt the most.

The order capped the most chaotic day for the U.S. government since Trump returned to office, with uncertainty over a crucial financial lifeline causing panic and confusion among states, schools and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington.

U.S. District Judge Loren L. Ali Khan blocked the funding freeze only minutes before it was scheduled to take effect. The administrative stay, prompted by a lawsuit brought by nonprofit groups that receive federal money, lasts until Monday afternoon. Another court hearing is scheduled that morning to consider the issue.

Democrats argued that the president had no right to unilaterally stop spending money appropriated by Congress. Just minutes after Ali Khan made her ruling, Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia filed their own lawsuit seeking to block and permanently prevent the administration from cutting off federal funding.

Democratic senators described panicked calls coming overnight from communities back home afraid of what will happen to programs for children, seniors, public works and disease research as the Trump administration pauses federal funding for review.

“There is no question this policy is reckless, dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

Backing off somewhat later in the day, Trump administration officials said programs that provide direct assistance to Americans would not be affected, such as Medicare, Social Security, student loans and food stamps. But they sometimes struggled to provide a clear picture.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially would not say whether Medicaid was exempted from the freeze, but the administration later claimed that it was.

Memos sent out by the Trump administration exposed the raw right-wing ideological bent of his attacks on the standard of living of Americans.

“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” wrote Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a memo distributed Monday.

Vaeth wrote that “each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders.” He also wrote that the freeze should be implemented “to the extent permissible under applicable law.”

The freeze on grants and loans was scheduled to take effect at 5 p.m. EST, just one day after agencies were informed of the decision.

Leavitt, who held her first White House briefing on Tuesday, said the administration was trying to be “good stewards” of public money by making sure that there was “no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness.”

Fears about interruption in government services were exacerbated as states reported problems with the Medicaid funding portal, where officials request reimbursement for providing healthcare to poor residents.

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CONTRIBUTOR

John Wojcik

John Wojcik is Editor-in-Chief of People's World. He joined the staff as Labor Editor in May 2007 after working as a union meat cutter in northern New Jersey. There, he served as a shop steward and a member of a UFCW contract negotiating committee. In the 1970s and '80s, he was a political action reporter for the Daily World, this newspaper's predecessor, and was active in electoral politics in Brooklyn, New York.

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