A US judge granted a restraining order to stop a federal funding freeze despite the Trump administration rescinding it on Wednesday, after conflicting messaging from the White House led to further confusion after days of chaos.
In a brief memo, the White House office of management and budget (OMB) said it rescinded a policy it announced on Monday that temporarily paused trillions of dollars in government support for everything from social services to security programs, in Trump’s first policy reversal since taking office last week.
The announcement of the funding freeze had thrown into question whether the government would continue honoring its obligations to pay for an array of programs, including the health insurance for disabled and low-income Americans provided by Medicaid.
However, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, attempted to downplay the OMB’s retraction of its original memorandum. “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo,” Leavitt wrote on X.
“Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”
A federal judge on Wednesday issued a restraining order against the funding freeze proposed in the OMB memo, pointing to Leavitt’s comments and contradictory messages from the White House. That order came after a different judge temporarily blocked the funding freeze on Tuesday.
The Providence, Rhode Island-based federal judge John McConnell intervened at the behest of Democratic state attorneys general amid the confusion, with the White House saying it had rescinded the memo but was not backing down from a freeze on funding in areas targeted by the recent executive orders. McConnell asked the attorneys general to submit a proposed temporary restraining order for him to sign.
Democrats quickly claimed victory for the reversal. The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said: “Americans fought back and Donald Trump backed off,” and called on the president to withdraw his nomination of Russel Vought, an author of Project 2025, to lead the OMB. “Though the Trump administration failed in this tactic, it’s no secret that they will try to find another, and when they do, it will again be Senate Democrats there to call it out, fight back, and defend American families.”
Trump put federal funding in his crosshairs shortly after taking office, pausing disbursements under Joe Biden’s signature legislative programs to fight the climate crisis and improve the nation’s infrastructure. But this week’s memorandum went even further, blocking outlays for programs that had stood for years, often with bipartisan support.
“Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,” the acting OMB director, Matthew J Vaeth, wrote in the original memo.
He went on to imply that federal money was being spent on “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies”, which he called “a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve”.
The pause was supposed to take effect on Tuesday evening, but before that deadline and the court order blocking it, lawmakers from states across the country reported that websites facilitating federal payments to healthcare and childcare providers were offline.
The potential for disruption was far and wide. Seth Magaziner, a Democratic congressman who is the ranking member on the homeland security subcommittee on counter-terrorism, shared a list of dozens of security-related programs that were having their funding frozen, and wrote: “This is a gift to terrorists and our adversaries across the world. Trump needs to stop this madness and resume funding now.”
Kendra Davenport, president and CEO of Easterseals, a national organization that provides services to seniors, children and adults with disabilities and veterans, said the possibility that federal grants would be cut off created “a day of heartache, chaos, panic and real fear”.
“Everybody wants to make sure every federal dollar is spent wisely. But we need to do it in a way that protects veterans, ageing adults, and more than one in four Americans with a disability,” Davenport said in a statement. “Now that a federal court has put a temporary pause on the grant freeze, let’s do a reset. We can have responsible government spending and support hardworking American families.”
Reuters contributed reporting
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