Chief Justice John Roberts granted the Trump administration's request Wednesday to delay a deadline and continue withholding nearly $2 billion in foreign aid, The Hill reported. A lower court ordered the payments to resume.
President Donald Trump has attempted to slash waste and fraud in the federal government. This has come with many cuts, including for projects that fall under the U.S. Agency for International Development.
However, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled Tuesday that billions of dollars in payments must resume to USAID and the State Department. Roberts' ruling allows the spending freeze to stand, which is necessary considering the logistical nightmare of forcing payments while audits are underway.
"This new order requiring payment of enormous sums of foreign-assistance money in less than 36 hours intrudes on the prerogatives of the Executive Branch. The President’s power is at its apex—and the power of the judiciary is at its nadir—in matters of foreign affairs," acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris noted in the emergency petition to the Supreme Court.
Trump imposed a foreign aid freeze as one of his first executive orders after taking office. Prior to Roberts' intervention, the Trump administration was prepared to disobey the midnight Tuesday deadline.
The administration blew through another Rhode Island court's order to unfreeze funds, and all of this has outraged the left. "The lengths to which the government is going to flout a court order, all for the goal of ending life-saving humanitarian assistance, is staggering," a statement from the plaintiffs' attorney, Allison Zieve, director of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, said.
Roberts, who is in charge of emergency petitions, chose not to have the full court weigh in on the matter. Now, the plaintiffs in the case say they must cease operations without the fresh injection of taxpayer dollars.
"After flouting the district court’s temporary restraining order for a full twelve days in letter and in spirit — requiring the district court to not once, not twice, but three times order compliance — Defendants bring this premature appeal in a last-ditch effort to evade the order of an Article III court," another attorney, Stephen Wirth, wrote. The plaintiffs claimed "time truly is of the essence" in this matter.
However, the Justice Department noted that there are other ways to access funding to run their programs. This fight for taxpayer dollars, even as the Trump administration still uncovers waste and abuse, has demonstrated the depth of the problems.
This legal win comes after another good week for the Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, Fox News reported. DOGE is already responsible for rooting out hundreds of millions in government waste and is seeking to save even more.
Their efforts have survived several legal challenges, including being allowed to proceed with mass firings of federal workers. The organization is also allowed to audit several federal agencies after judgments in favor of DOGE failed to block access.
Notably, DOGE has also uncovered a mysterious $4.7 trillion in payments from the Treasury, as its account on X, formerly Twitter, explained. "The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process)," the post said.
"In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible. As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going," it added.
DOGE's mission is a great one, and it appears to be rolling along smoothly even in the face of opposition. This latest decision to freeze payments was another good one from the courts and great news for the Trump administration.
