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‘Lawlessness and Chaos’: Trump’s Massive Federal Aid Freeze Over ‘Woke Ideology’ Condemned
In a wide-ranging and unprecedented move, the Trump administration has ordered a freeze on nearly all federal government aid in a stated effort to root out and end funding for “woke” policies, including what acting Office of Management and Budget Director Matthew Vaeth called “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies,” “DEI,” and “woke gender ideology.”
The reach of the freeze is extraordinary, but also largely undefined. In his memo, Vaeth suggested it affects $3 trillion in federal funding, nearly half of the federal government’s $6.75 trillion spent during fiscal year 2024. And while allegedly temporary, there is no date published for funding to be turned back on.
The Washington Post notes that the “memo states its orders should not be ‘construed’ to impact Social Security or Medicare recipients, and also says the federal financial assistance put on hold ‘does not include assistance provided directly to individuals.'”
But the federal government sends grants to the states for programs like Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps), the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) food program, CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), highways, community development, housing, and education programs. It also provides funding through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement, which helps states prepare for natural disasters and pandemics, like COVID.
The Bulwark’s Sam Stein observed, “This federal grant funding *pause* is going to impact a lot of people who voted for Trump. Whether they care or connect the dots is another matter.”
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Legal experts say the move could be unconstitutional. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 requires Congressional approval for a president to withhold the funds Congress has allocated. The U.S. Supreme Court in Train v. City of New York (1975) also ruled a president cannot refuse to spend allocated funds.
Calling Vaeth’s memo “cryptic and thinly reasoned,” Professor of Law and constitutional scholar Steve Vladeck writes, “the consequences are potentially cataclysmic—for virtually all foreign aid (including the distribution of HIV drugs in poor countries); for medical and other scientific research in the United States; for tons of different pools of support for educational institutions; and for virtually every other entity that receives federal financial assistance.”
He says that “even without the Impoundment Control Act, the kind of across-the-board impoundment the OMB memo is effectuating, even temporarily, should pretty plainly be unconstitutional,” but adds, “the Impoundment Control Act appears to resolve the illegality of this move beyond dispute.”
Others are also condemning the Trump administration’s move.
“The US Constitution does not grant the President this unilateral authority,” remarked Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. In Illinois, we will stand against unlawful actions that would harm millions of working families, children, and seniors.”
Calling it a “brazen” and “illegal move,” U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) wrote, “the Trump administration is working to freeze federal funding passed into law. The law is the law—Trump must immediately reverse course, follow the requirements of the law, & ensure the nation’s spending laws are implemented as Congress intended.”
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Murray is vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. She pointed to a letter she and her counterpart in the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) sent to the OMB chief:
Democratic appropriators pushback against temporary pause to federal assistance: “The scope of what you are ordering is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country. We write today to urge you in the strongest possible terms to uphold the… pic.twitter.com/8I2vUBmjt1
— Bo Erickson Reuters (@BoKnowsNews) January 28, 2025
Dr. Phillip Rocco is an associate professor whose “research examines the intersection between federalism, the policymaking process, and the political economy of policy expertise.” He suggests that more than a third of state budgets, on average, are funded by federal grants:
“To put the OMB grant freeze in context, roughly 17.5% of Wisconsin’s revenue comes from federal grants in aid last I checked. Overall, federal grants account for roughly 36% of all state government budgets in US. In a number of states the federal share is even higher.”
“It seems like a very big deal, ”Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the right-wing Manhattan Institute, told the Post. “The funding delays are going to prove very difficult for grantees under the impression the money is coming, and have rent and salary payments dependent upon it.”
“In two pages, we’ve got what amounts to 60 years of tradition and policies that are thrown up in the air,” Donald Kettl, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, told the Post. Kettl, who has consulted for multiple government agencies, also said: “For those suffering most, the uncertainty will be immense.”
U.S. Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a damning statement overnight condemning the OMB directive.
“More lawlessness and chaos in America as Donald Trump’s Administration blatantly disobeys the law by holding up virtually all vital funds that support programs in every community across the country. If this continues, the American people will pay an awful price,” he wrote. “They say this is only temporary, but no one should believe that. Donald Trump must direct his Administration to reverse course immediately and the taxpayers’ money should be distributed to the people.”
“Congress approved these investments and they are not optional; they are the law. These grants help people in red states and blue states, support families, help parents raise kids, and lead to stronger communities,” Schumer added. “Donald Trump’s Administration is jeopardizing billions upon billions of community grants and financial support that help millions of people across the country. It will mean missed payrolls and rent payments and everything in between: chaos for everything from universities to non-profit charities.”
In another unprecedented move, as The Washington Post also reported, all agencies will have to send data not to a career OMB official, but to a political appointee.
“The agencies are also required to submit detailed lists of projects suspended under the new order by Feb. 10. Federal agencies must assign ‘responsibility and oversight’ to tracking the federal spending to a senior political appointee, not a career official, the memo states.”
The existence of the memo was first reported by journalist Marisa Kabas, of The Handbasket.
READ MORE: Fetterman Denies Rightward Shift Toward Trump Amid Concerns Over His Democratic Dedication
Image via Reuters
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
