Politics
Federal judge blocks White House freeze on 'financial assistance' amid anger, confusion
WASHINGTON — A federal judge Tuesday temporarily blocked a Trump administration directive that would have frozen an array of federal financial aid while the administration assessed whether it comported with the new president’s agenda, finding the directive had the potential to cause “irreparable harm” to Americans.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan delayed the Office of Management and Budget memorandum from taking effect until at least 5 p.m. Monday, while a legal challenge to it by a coalition of nonprofit organizations plays out.
The ruling by AliKhan, an appointee of President Biden, followed a rush of confusion and anger among Democratic leaders, state officials and federal program managers over the directive’s vagueness, as well as efforts by the White House to walk back its scope after first issuing the memo late Monday.
Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Assn. — part of the coalition that sued — said the directive had the potential to cause “a lot of dysfunction and the loss of services,” and welcomed the judge’s decision to halt it while the litigation proceeds.
“When you run a nonprofit or a small business, and basically your bank account has been, in effect, closed … you have no sense of whether you’re going to get reimbursed for that work — that’s a big problem,” he said.
The administration’s order was also facing a separate legal challenge from California and other states, where officials argued the directive was an unconstitutional power grab by President Trump that would harm vulnerable populations.
“We will not stand by while the president attempts to disrupt vital programs that feed our kids, provide medical care to our families and support housing in our communities,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said at a news conference. “We won’t stand by while the president breaks the law and oversteps his authority, as outlined in our Constitution.”
Bonta said the order threatens trillions of dollars in federal funding, and was “reckless, it is dangerous, unprecedented in scope and devastating in its intended effect.”
New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, who is leading the effort with Bonta, called the memo “plainly unconstitutional.”
“The president does not get to decide which laws to enforce and for whom,” James said. “When Congress dedicates funding for a program, the president cannot pull that funding on a whim.”
Bonta and James spoke after a day of swirling speculation about the scope of the order — which the White House downplayed even as it worked to specify the order’s reach.
The White House issued an updated memo Tuesday that expanded a list of programs exempted from the funding pause, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the food assistance program known as SNAP. Also exempted would be federal funding for small businesses, farmers, Pell Grant recipients, Head Start, rental assistance “and other similar programs,” the White House said.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said that the directive was “not a blanket pause on federal assistance and grant programs” and that anyone receiving “individual assistance from the federal government” would continue receiving that aid. She also noted that the cuts, which were meant to take effect Tuesday afternoon, were temporary, and that leaders of federal programs were free to call Trump budget officials to make the case that their programs should not be frozen.
She also suggested the administration was clear on the order’s scope, and confusion on that front was limited to the media.
Both James and Bonta said the White House’s attempts to minimize the scope of the order after confusing program managers and terrifying benefit recipients across the country did not resolve their concerns or negate the need for their lawsuit.
On the contrary, Bonta said that the initial order had “thrown state programs into chaos,” and the White House’s attempts to clarify it had “further fueled” the confusion.
James said some states were already reporting that funds had been frozen, including for programs that the White House said would not be affected. Many states had been shut out of their Medicaid reimbursement systems, she said. Other programs affected in different states included Head Start and child development block grants, she said.
California is expected to distribute $168.3 billion in federal funds and grants through the fiscal year that ends June 30. Officials are assessing what of that funding is at risk. Los Angeles officials were also scrambling to make sense of the order, which could affect housing vouchers and homeless assistance grants, according to internal emails.
Bonta said he is coordinating with other state officials, and believes that federal disaster relief funding for the recovery from L.A.’s devastating wildfires remains at risk under the order.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he remained confident in the state’s partnership with the federal government to meet fire-related needs, but also said the directive on financial aid was “completely inconsistent with the law.”
“It’s unconstitutional and I think any objective observer sees that,” he said.
The uproar began late Monday, after Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, issued a memo announcing a “temporary pause” on grants, loans and other financial assistance.
Vaeth wrote that voters had given Trump a “mandate to increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar,” and Trump needed to determine which spending by the government aligned with his agenda.
“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,” he wrote. “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.”
Democrats immediately began sounding alarms and calling the directive unconstitutional and far beyond the scope of Trump’s power as president, given that Congress, not the White House, generally appropriates funding.
Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said the fact that “Congress holds the power of the purse” is “very clear in the Constitution.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, called the White House move “a constitutional crisis.” His committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on Trump’s nomination of Russ Vought as White House budget chief. Vought is the architect of the spending freeze.
The original memorandum ordered all federal agencies to conduct a “comprehensive analysis” of their spending to determine which of it is “consistent with the President’s policies” and the raft of executive orders that Trump has issued.
In the interim, it said, federal agencies must — to “the extent permissible under applicable laws” — pause all disbursements of funds or “other relevant agency activities” that may be covered by Trump’s orders, “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” Vaeth wrote.
The pause, the memo said, will give the Trump administration time to “determine the best uses of the funding” moving forward.
Leading Republicans largely defended the move — suggesting it was a normal act for an incoming administration.
“I think that’s a normal practice at the beginning of administration, until they have an opportunity to review how the money is being spent,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday morning.
Democrats disagreed — issuing especially critical reactions prior to the White House’s clarifications.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the directive “outrageous” and “a dagger at the heart of the average American family in red states and blue states, in cities, in suburbs, in rural areas.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) wrote that Trump’s “illegal scheme will raise costs, hurt working families and deny critical resources for Americans in need.” Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) said the order will cause Americans to suffer.
A coalition including the American Public Health Assn. and the National Council of Nonprofits is independently challenging the memo in court, as well.
The order followed a separate directive by the Trump administration to halt a range of foreign aid.
Mark Peterson, a UCLA professor who studies public policy and political science, said the original memo was without precedent and left “extreme ambiguity as to what it affects and how it applies,” as well as its duration.
“Anything that has, from the point of view of the Trump administration, the aroma of dealing with equity or inclusion issues could be put under threat,” Peterson said — and “there’s so much misunderstanding about what those issues are.”
Times staff writers Pinho reported from Washington, Rector from San Francisco and Alpert Reyes from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Taryn Luna in Sacramento contributed to this report.
President Trump has promoted a chain of newly rebranded gas stations across the Philadelphia area with lower gas prices. The New York Times has not been able to get detailed information about who is behind the stations. The Trump administration says it did not fund or subsidize the company.
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Kelley Paul is no stranger to the American political scene. As the wife of Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and the daughter-in-law of longtime former Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), she has seen her fair share of the campaign trail, emerging as a powerful surrogate during her husband’s 2016 presidential run.
She is also an accomplished writer, speaker, and public relations professional. As America ushers in its 250th anniversary, Paul saw the perfect opportunity to branch out into the world of children’s literature. Recently she sat down with Fox News Digital in Las Vegas at Freedom Fest to discuss her new book, “Good Night, Young American.”
Kelley Paul is the wife of Sen. Rand Paul and author of two books. (Courtesy Kelley Paul)
Paul credits her family for giving her the inspiration for the new project:
“I have to give a lot of credit to my daughter-in-law, Kate. She and our son were over for dinner last summer with our grandson, who was only six months old at the time. And Kate was like, you know, we need more patriotic books for babies. She wasn’t really happy with a lot of the book options she was seeing. And that night at dinner, we kind of played around with some ideas. And I came up with ‘Good Night Young American.’ And a year later, here it is.”
EXCLUSIVE: RAND AND KELLEY PAUL OPEN UP ABOUT 2016 RACE
“Good Night, Young American,” recommended for children ages 4–8, takes kids on a visually and thematically engaging journey through early and colonial history.
“Well, our revolutionary history is such a great adventure, right? So when I came up with the concept that my little boy would start out on the 4th of July with his parents, asking, what is it all about? I knew we’d be celebrating the 250th. Kids ask, what are we really celebrating?
And his dad describes the Declaration of Independence to him in the signing. So I tried to think what is going to appeal to children in this great adventure of our revolution. So when he falls asleep that night, he’s in the crow’s nest of the Mayflower. He is a pilgrim, he’s a colonist, and then he makes friends with all the great revolutionary heroes that we know. So he makes friends with Sam Adams, he joins the Sons of Liberty, he meets at the Green Dragon. This is so exciting for children, right?
It’s visual stuff. He makes friends with Ben Franklin, and he’s flying the kite. Dramatically rides on the midnight ride with Paul Revere. He and his dog, his little dog, are with him for all the adventures. And of course, he crosses the Delaware with George Washington. And I wanted to make the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the writing of it something that was dynamic and exciting visually. So I have him swinging on the Liberty Bell when the declaration is signed.”
Paul worked closely with the illustrator, Marika Monesi, to bring the events of America’s founding to life in an engaging and visually appealing way for children.
The Liberty Bell, originally saved from the British by Lynnport farmer Frederick Leaser, sits in its Philadelphia shrine. (iStock)
“She really captured the excitement on the little boy’s face, his personality, but I worked very close with her,” Paul said. “I wanted there to be a lot of movement, a lot of dynamic images. So, for example, with the Liberty Bell, for kids, a bunch of men standing around writing a document…I wanted to bring it to life. So I said, let’s have him running up to the top of the bell tower in Philadelphia at Freedom Hall and swinging on the Liberty Bell. And she was just such a great artist. With the George Washington scenes, he’s crossing the Delaware because that, again, is so visual. I wanted drive home to children the incredible bravery and courage of our founders, how cold and miserable and hard that war was.
“Also, I love the illustration that she did of the King of England reading the Declaration of Independence. I have to give my husband Rand a little credit there. On the first couple of drafts that she did, Rand was like, ‘He needs to be fatter. King George was famously fat!’ So it was a lot of fun. It was very collaborative.”
KELLEY PAUL ‘EXHAUSTED AND ANGRY’ THAT THOSE WHO HARASSED HER AND HER HUSBAND FACE NO CHARGES
Part of Paul’s motivation for the book was related to the teaching of American history today, and the controversies therein:
“I do think that we’ve gotten away from really celebrating our founders and our heroes. What they were doing in 1776 was incredibly radical, if you think about it. At that time, everyone accepted the divine right of kings. Everyone accepted hereditary rule. And our founders took Enlightenment ideas from John Locke and philosophers, and they turned it into the framework for a government. The idea of self-government and that our rights come from our Creator, that we have inalienable rights that are given to us by God and not from a king. Those were radical ideas of the time.
Historians say an early draft of the Declaration of Independence offered new insight into how Thomas Jefferson refined the nation’s founding document. (Stock Montage/Stock Montage/Getty Images)
I like to say our founders were the first civil rights heroes, the first civil libertarians. And I think our education system has gotten away from that. They don’t view them in the time that they existed, and suddenly now everything is oppressor versus oppressed narrative. And they are labeled more like colonizers or enslavers, and that’s the only view that they’re looked at, and not as human beings who sacrificed their very lives to write the Declaration of Independence, to form this country…it was an incredible, bold, and courageous act, but it was also an act of moral courage and philosophical courage.”
Ultimately, Paul hopes that her books will stimulate the natural curiosity of America’s youth to learn more about their rich history:
Participants carry the City of Cumberland’s “America 250” parade banner down Baltimore Street during the America 250 parade in downtown Cumberland, Maryland, on June 27, 2026. Spectators line both sides of the street as American and Maryland flags lead the procession. (Fox News Digital/ David Marcus)
“Well, I hope that my books, especially with America’s 250, will spark a lot of questions and that they will give a framework for parents to talk to their kids about the founding of this country. And I hope children from a very, very young age will come away with this idea that they are a part of America’s story, that they as Americans can take pride in the heroism of our revolutionary founders. That as Americans, this is all of our story. So that’s really my goal with the books.”
One of the biggest challenges Paul faced was taking big ideas that may be hard for a four or five-year-old to grasp, like the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, and distilling them down into an accessible format for kids:
“Well, I try to use language that kids could understand, and very much use simple terms. But if you think about it, it is simple. Our rights come from God. And when he makes friends with Thomas Jefferson, he says, Thomas Jefferson has written this amazing document that says that we can all be free to live our lives the way we choose, and no government can take our rights to, you know, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness away from us.
He also talks about James Madison and the Bill of Rights and the most important right is freedom of speech. That is that no government can tell you what to say or what not to say.”
Rand Paul, who famously puts Constitutional principles front and center in the public square, also played a key role in the book’s thematic development.
Kelley Paul and her husband Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul. (Courtesy Kelley Paul)
“Rand has been incredibly supportive. I’m just so grateful and blessed to have had an amazing, now 36-year marriage to Rand Paul. And he was very involved. He would read over the drafts and gave me a lot of, like I said, good advice about things in history that he thought I should include.
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And I’m also just very grateful to be the daughter-in-law of Ron Paul. And so, I wanted these books to be there for our little grandson who I call ‘my favorite little American’ and help him from an early age be educated in the legacy that, the Paul family has in this country.”
WASHINGTON — President Trump dismissed all remaining members of the bipartisan U.S. Elections Assistance Commission this week, his latest move to assert control over national elections in the final months before midterm voting.
The White House defended the move as justified by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision handing the president greater authority to reshape independent government agencies, including by replacing appointed leaders.
Democrats and some independent elections experts blasted it as politically motivated, counter to the interests of voters and foolhardy with the November election so close.
“Purging commissioners just months before the midterm elections and further gutting support for our state and local elections officials is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference,” said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, which oversees federal elections.
Padilla alleged the dismissals are an attempt by Trump “to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure.”
A White House official framed the dismissals in starkly different terms, saying the departing commissioners were “not totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted.” It did not say when the president planned to appoint new commissioners.
The four-member commission was created by Congress in 2002 as part of the Help America Vote Act to help states improve their voting systems and voter access. By law, no more than two commissioners may belong to the same political party.
Historically, it has provided voluntary guidance and best practices for voting systems, and served as a sort of clearinghouse for election performance around the country — so that states and localities can learn from one another.
Since 2018, the panel has also disbursed more than $1 billion in election security grants, according to a report by the Bipartisan Policy Center. Those grants are then used to protect IT systems from foreign and domestic cyberattacks, update voting systems, ensure the accuracy of voter rolls and protect the integrity of ballots after they are cast.
Without leadership, the panel cannot take any official action until new members are nominated and confirmed by the Senate.
Benjamin W. Hovland, one of the Democratic commissioners removed by Trump, told NBC News that taking away a key federal agency designed to help state and local election administrators will have a negative effect on already strained elections officials.
“When you’re asking more and more of people without giving them the necessary resources, you know, mistakes happen,” he said.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, in a statement to The Times, said Trump was “injecting unnecessary chaos, confusion and instability into the very systems that Americans rely on to make their voices heard,” but that California “will not be intimidated or deterred” from maintaining elections “in which everyone can fairly and securely participate.”
California Atty. Gen Rob Bonta — whose office has already blocked federal agencies from implementing most of Trump’s election orders in court — called Trump’s firings “deeply troubling,” and said his office “will continue to closely monitor any efforts to weaken our democracy and fight back with every tool at our disposal.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said on X that “Newsom’s election protection efforts become more important by the day” — a reference to his recent push for state legislation that would make it a felony in California for anyone to seize ballots before a vote has been certified.
Newsom had said Thursday that Trump’s efforts to seize control over elections represented a “five-alarm fire” that must be confronted.
Trump’s dismantling of the commission comes as he wages a much broader campaign to rewrite voting rules. He has sought to place new restrictions on mail ballots, to tighten voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements for voters, to subject state voter rolls to federal oversight and purges, and to assert federal control over how and whether the U.S. Postal Service delivers mail ballots.
Much of that agenda, pushed through executive orders and other administrative actions, has been stymied by the courts, while stalling out in Congress, where it lacks support.
Whether Trump’s move to dismantle and reconstitute the commission will prove an effective path to instituting his election agenda remains unclear, experts said.
David Becker, the executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the election commission has always had a “very limited mandate,” can’t dictate policy to the states and has no law enforcement powers — meaning Trump’s dismissals will have little real effect on elections.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law, wrote that Trump could try to illegally direct the commission to “do his bidding” by amending the federal voter registration form to require proof of citizenship — though that would also have limited effect and would be challenged in court.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Trump’s firing of the commissioners was part of a broader effort by the president to “sow distrust in our voting system so he can contest the results if they are not to his liking.”
Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said California has “the most robust standards” for elections in the country, which won’t change with the removal of the commissioners.
Still, she said word of the firings rocketed around a conference of county elections officials in San Diego on Thursday — with some wondering whether the dismissals would threaten federal election funding, and others lamenting the loss of the ousted commissioners’ deep experience.
Dean Logan, head of the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office, said in a statement to The Times that “any sudden change to the support structure for elections in the middle of an election cycle is concerning,” but that California “has a strong local and state foundation for election administration and voting systems support, and that will minimize any potential disruption caused by this action.”
In recent months, Trump has leveraged federal agencies to overhaul the nation’s voting rules in ways no previous president has attempted.
He has repeatedly pressured Republican lawmakers to pass a federal law that would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register, show identification when casting a ballot and force states to send voter data to the Department of Homeland Security.
Republican leaders have said the proposed SAVE America Act does not have enough votes to pass in the Senate. The GOP resistance has angered Trump, who on Friday said he was refusing to sign a bipartisan housing bill in protest.
The housing bill, which Trump called a “big yawn” last month, was to become law at midnight Friday without Trump’s signature.
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