Trump administration ordered to comply with court order lifting federal funding freeze
The Trump administration must lift its broad federal funding freeze, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered on Monday.
“The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” the order says.
The order comes after Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and DC said the Trump administration violated another judge’s earlier ruling which temporarily blocked the freezing of federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance. These attorneys general said despite the ruling, some funds remain frozen.
Trump’s proposed freeze has put groups including non-profit organizations, educational institutions and tribal nations in a panic over the uncertainty of their funding.
Key events
Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Monday that would relax enforcement of a foreign corruption law in a move the White House claims would allow American companies to be more competitive, the Associated Press reports.
The executive order will direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to pause enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — which prohibits American companies operating abroad from using bribery and other illegal methods — while she issues new guidance that “promotes American competitiveness and efficient use of federal law enforcement resources,” according to a White House fact sheet about the order obtained by the AP.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s dismantling of USAid continues, despite a court order that temporarily paused his plans to lay off thousands of employees.
The Associated Press reports that the aid agency has lost its lease at its Washington DC headquarters, while an unidentified official told employees who showed up today to “just go”. Here’s more:
The Trump administration confirmed to The Associated Press that it had taken USAID off the lease of the building, which it had occupied for decades.
USAID’s eviction from its headquarters marks the latest in the swift dismantling of the aid agency and its programs by President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk. Both have targeted agency spending that they call wasteful and accuse its work around the world of being out of line with Trump’s agenda.
A steady stream of agency staffers — dressed in business clothes or USAID sweatshirts or T-shirts — were told by a front desk officer Monday that he had a list of no more than 10 names of people allowed to enter the building. Tarps covered USAID’s interior signs.
A man who earlier identified himself as a USAID official took a harsher tone, telling staffers “just go” and “why are you here?”
USAID staff were denied entry to their offices to retrieve belongings and were told the lease had been turned over to the General Services Administration, which manages federal government buildings.
A GSA spokesperson confirmed that USAID had been removed from the lease and the building would be repurposed for other government uses.
Federal judge maintains hold on Trump’s employee resignation plan
A federal judge has prolonged his hold on Donald Trump’s offer of deferred resignations for millions of federal workers, Reuters reports.
The unheard-of offer that is billed as allowing federal workers to resign their jobs and continue getting paid until September was made by the Trump administration last month, and linked to Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”. Labor unions sued over the program, and succeeded in getting a deadline for workers to accept paused.
Here’s more from Reuters on the latest ruling in the case:
The decision by U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston prevents Trump’s administration from implementing the buyout plan for now, giving a temporary victory to labor unions that have sued to stop it entirely.
More than 2 million federal civilian employees had faced a midnight deadline to accept the proposal. It is unclear when O’Toole will rule on the unions’ request.
The buyout effort is part of a far-reaching plan by Republican President Donald Trump and his allies to reduce the size and rein in the actions of the federal bureaucracy. Trump, who returned to the presidency on January 20, has accused the federal workforce of undercutting his agenda during his first term in office, from 2017-2021.
Unions have urged their members not to accept the buyout offer – saying Trump’s administration cannot be trusted to honor it – but about 65,000 federal employees had signed up for the buyouts as of Friday, according to a White House official.
Reuters has been unable to independently verify that number, which does not include a breakdown of workers from each agency.
The offer promises to pay employees their regular salaries and benefits until October without requiring them to work, but that may not be ironclad. Current spending laws expire on March 14 and there is no guarantee that salaries would be funded beyond that point.
The White House has said employees could submit plans to leave through 11:59 p.m. ET Monday.
In his three weeks in office, Donald Trump has signed executive orders that appear to fly in the face of the constitution and federal law.
The New York Times reports that legal scholars believe the president has put the United States on the road to a constitutional crisis – or perhaps already created one:
There is no universally accepted definition of a constitutional crisis, but legal scholars agree about some of its characteristics. It is generally the product of presidential defiance of laws and judicial rulings. It is not binary: It is a slope, not a switch. It can be cumulative, and once one starts, it can get much worse.
It can also be obvious, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley.
“We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now,” he said on Friday. “There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this.”
His ticked off examples of what he called President Trump’s lawless conduct: revoking birthright citizenship, freezing federal spending, shutting down an agency, removing leaders of other agencies, firing government employees subject to civil service protections and threatening to deport people based on their political views.
That is a partial list, Professor Chemerinsky said, and it grows by the day. “Systematic unconstitutional and illegal acts create a constitutional crisis,” he said.
The distinctive feature of the current situation, several legal scholars said, is its chaotic flood of activity that collectively amounts to a radically new conception of presidential power. But the volume and speed of those actions may overwhelm and thus thwart sober and measured judicial consideration.
It will take some time, though perhaps only weeks, for a challenge to one of Mr. Trump’s actions to reach the Supreme Court. So far he has not openly flouted lower court rulings temporarily halting some of his initiatives, and it remains to be seen whether he would defy a ruling against him by the justices.
“It’s an open question whether the administration will be as contemptuous of courts as it has been of Congress and the Constitution,” said Kate Shaw, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “At least so far, it hasn’t been.”
JD Vance suggests Trump administration may not comply with court orders
The Trump administration has been ordered to lift its freeze on federal funding – but will it?
Over the weekend, JD Vance signaled that the White House was considering ignoring court orders it disagreed with, potentially in a case such as its attempts to restrain spending authorized by Congress. Vance wrote on X:
If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal.
If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal.
Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.
It remains to be seen if the White House will follow through on Vance’s threat.
The Internal Revenue Service has been asked by the US Department of Homeland Security to help crack down on immigration.
A memo sent on Friday obtained by the New York Times revealed homeland security secretary Kristi Noem asked treasury secretary Scott Bessent to deputize IRS agents to help with nationwide immigration enforcement efforts, including by auditing employers believed to have hired unauthorized migrants and human trafficking investigations.
Trump administration ordered to comply with court order lifting federal funding freeze
The Trump administration must lift its broad federal funding freeze, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered on Monday.
“The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” the order says.
The order comes after Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and DC said the Trump administration violated another judge’s earlier ruling which temporarily blocked the freezing of federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance. These attorneys general said despite the ruling, some funds remain frozen.
Trump’s proposed freeze has put groups including non-profit organizations, educational institutions and tribal nations in a panic over the uncertainty of their funding.
Lauren Gambino
When organizers announced a “Nobody Elected Elon” protest at the treasury department’s headquarters in Washington – in response to the revelation that Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) had accessed sensitive taxpayer data – not a single Democratic lawmaker had agreed to attend.
But as public outrage mounted over Donald Trump’s brazen assault on the federal government, the speaking list grew. In the end, more than two dozen Democratic members of Congress including Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, spoke at the event, which drew hundreds of protesters outside on a frigid Tuesday last week. In speech after speech, they pledged to do everything in their power to block Trump from carrying out his rightwing agenda.
“We might have a few less seats in Congress,” Maxwell Frost, a representative from Florida, thundered into the microphone. “But we’re not going to be the minority. We’re going to be the opposition.”
The day so far
Donald Trump’s assault on Washington DC’s institutions continues, with employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau being told today by a Project 2025 architect who now works in the White House not to come to the office, or otherwise do their jobs. The president has also said he’ll be announcing a round of new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports at some point, the prospect of which has raised fresh concerns of market havoc and unpredictable retaliatory measures. In Congress, House Democrats have put together a “rapid response task force” to counter the administration, while Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would use spending negotiations as leverage against Trump’s policies. Meanwhile, five former Treasury secretaries warned that Elon Musk’s meddling in the department’s payment system could have regrettable consequences.
Here’s what else has been going on today:
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Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, told Pentagon leaders not to take on recruits with gender dysphoria, and banned gender-affirming care for service members.
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A third federal judge struck down Trump’s attempt to ban birthright citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
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Democratic attorneys general from 22 states sued over a Trump administration policy that could drastically curb funding for medical research.
Defense secretary Hegseth bans recruitment of troops with gender dysphoria, pauses gender-affirming care
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered military branches not to accept recruits with gender dysphoria, and to pause gender-affirming care for service members, Reuters reports.
The decision by the newly installed Pentagon chief is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to curtail transgender rights, but does allow soldiers with gender dysphoria to continue serving.
“Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused,” Hegseth wrote in a memo to defense department leaders. “Individuals with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect.”
By way of justification, Hegseth wrote:
The Department must ensure it is building “One Force” without subgroups defined by anything other than ability or mission adherence. Efforts to split our troops along lines of identity weaken our Force and make us vulnerable. Such efforts must not be tolerated or accommodated.
The decision appears to line up with an executive order Donald Trump signed a week after taking office:
Democratic-led states sue Trump administration over plan to slash medical research funding
Twenty-two Democratic state attorneys general have sued the Trump administration over a plan that would dramatically cut medical research funding for hospitals, universities and other research facilities.
The lawsuit came after the National Institutes of Health announced it would cap at 15% the amount of each grant that could be spent on costs associated with medical research, staff, equipment and building-related costs.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts argues the new policy would threaten research and run afoul of pre-existing agreements.
“We will not allow the Trump Administration to unlawfully undermine our economy, hamstring our competitiveness, or play politics with our public health,” said Andrea Joy Campbell, Massachusetts’s attorney general, who is leading the suit along with top prosecutors from Michigan and Illinois. States including California, North Carolina and Wisconsin have also signed on.
Here’s more about the funding cuts:
Elon Musk responded in typical fashion to the criticism levelled by five former treasury secretaries against the meddling done by his “department of government efficiency” in its payment systems:
Listen Larry, we need to stop government spending like a drunken sailor on fraud & waste or America is gonna go bankrupt. That does mean a lot of grifters will lose their grift and complain loudly about it. Too bad. Deal with it.
That was on X, naturally, to Larry Summers, who served as treasury secretary under Bill Clinton.
Top Senate Democrat announces plan to ‘fight back’ against Trump administration
Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has debuted steps the party will take to hold the Trump administration accountable, including holding independent hearings into its policies and leveraging their influence in government spending negotiations.
“Senate Democrats have a responsibility to fight back on behalf of American families as Republicans look the other way in obedience to Donald Trump. And we are,” Schumer wrote in a letter to Democratic senators.
His plan has four planks, the first being so-called “spotlight” hearings in which Democrats will highlight the harm done by Trump’s policies. These will likely be Democrat-only events that will lack the subpoena power of typical committee hearings, since the party is presently in the minority in the Senate:
Senate Democrats are prepared to hold independent “spotlight” hearings to expose the rampant wrongdoing of the Trump Administration – wrongdoing that our Republican counterparts, for the time being, refuse to acknowledge. These hearings will shed light on the harm inflicted by Trump’s policies on the American people while applying public pressure on Congressional Republicans to answer for their unwavering complicity.
Schumer also encouraged lawmakers to work with state attorneys general and other groups that are suing the Trump administration:
Our committees and my office are in regular communication with litigants across the country, including plaintiffs, and are actively exploring opportunities for the Democratic Caucus to file amici curiae that support their lawsuits. I encourage you to meet with your constituents and relay their stories to your state Attorneys General, highlighting how the lawless actions from the Trump Administration are harming their communities. This information will be invaluable as the AGs and advocates continue developing their cases.
And told senators to do lots of public outreach:
Through a relentless messaging push, we are exposing how their policies will drive up everyday expenses, strip essential protections, and prioritize the wealthy over working Americans.
Perhaps the biggest news here is Schumer’s allusion to the government funding negotiations that will need to reach an agreement soon, if a shutdown is to be avoided in early March. The Senate filibuster gives the party some leverage in preventing legislation Democrats disapprove of from passing, and Schumer makes clear they are willing to use it:
Democrats stand ready to support legislation that will prevent a government shutdown. Congressional Republicans, despite their bluster, know full well that governing requires bipartisan negotiation and cooperation. Of course, legislation in the Senate requires 60 votes and Senate Democrats will use our votes to help steady the ship for the American people in these turbulent times. It is incumbent on responsible Republicans to get serious and work in a bipartisan fashion to avoid a Trump Shutdown.
Trump rules out Palestinian return to Gaza under US takeover plan
Donald Trump has said Palestinians will not be able to return to Gaza, if his plan for the United States to take control of the territory comes to fruition.
The comment came in an interview with Fox News, and is the latest controversial aspect of his plan for deeper American involvement in one of the longest running conflicts in the Middle East. We have a live blog covering the latest on the crisis in the region, and you can follow it here:
Democratic congresswoman Val Hoyle says she has quit the congressional caucus supporting Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) over what she describes as its destructive assault on core government functions.
“As the legislative branch, we came here to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, to make good policy, and, again, work in good faith to find efficiencies, whether that’s investing in IT or, you know, combining agencies or departments, you know, making sure we don’t have too much bureaucracy,” Hoyle told CNN.
“But fundamentally, you can’t do that while government is being blown up from the inside. And let’s be clear, Donald Trump and Elon Musk have a different mission. They say it’s about efficiency and saving taxpayer dollars. It isn’t. It’s about intimidating workers, breaking our government and installing loyalists that are loyal to Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and not to the American people or the constitution.”
Only a handful of Democrats joined the Doge caucus, with most saying they were doing so because of their support for reforming aspects of the federal government’s operations.
House Democrats have announced the creation of a “Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group” to handle their counterattack to the Trump administration’s efforts to transform the federal government.
“We are engaged in a multifaceted struggle to protect and defend everyday Americans from the harm being inflicted by this administration. As outlined last week, it’s an all hands on deck effort simultaneously underway in Congress, the Courts and the Community,” Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a letter to colleagues.
Congressman Joe Neguse will chair the effort, along with representatives Rosa DeLauro, Gerry Connolly and Jamie Raskin as co-chairs.
Former treasury secretaries warn of risks from Doge’s access of payment system
Five former secretaries of the treasury warn that by accessing the department’s secure payment system, the Donald Trump-sanctioned “department of government efficiency” (Doge) is putting Americans’ privacy at risk.
Writing in the New York Times, the five former secretaries, all of whom served under Democratic presidents, say that foreign actors could benefit from any data breaches that result from Doge’s meddling. Here’s what they wrote:
The nation’s payment system has historically been operated by a very small group of nonpartisan career civil servants. In recent days, that norm has been upended, and the roles of these nonpartisan officials have been compromised by political actors from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. One has been appointed fiscal assistant secretary — a post that for the prior eight decades had been reserved exclusively for civil servants to ensure impartiality and public confidence in the handling and payment of federal funds.
These political actors have not been subject to the same rigorous ethics rules as civil servants, and one has explicitly retained his role in a private company, creating at best the appearance of financial conflicts of interest. They lack training and experience to handle private, personal data — like Social Security numbers and bank account information. Their power subjects America’s payments system and the highly sensitive data within it to the risk of exposure, potentially to our adversaries. And our critical infrastructure is at risk of failure if the code that underwrites it is not handled with due care. That is why a federal judge this past weekend blocked, at least temporarily, these individuals from the Treasury’s payments system, noting the risk of “irreparable harm.”
They also note that the Trump administration’s efforts to unilaterally prevent the Treasury from disbursing government funds are unconstitutional. “The Trump administration may seek to change the law and alter what spending Congress appropriates, as administrations before it have done as well. And should the law change, it will be the role of the executive branch to execute those changes. But it is not for the Treasury Department or the administration to decide which of our congressionally approved commitments to fulfill and which to cast aside,” the former secretaries write.
Here’s more about Doge’s activities at the Treasury department, and the concerns they have created:
Third federal judge rules against Trump birthright citizenship ban
A federal judge has found Donald Trump’s attempt to ban birthright citizenship for undocumented immigrants unconstitutional, in the third such setback for the order, the Associated Press reports.
The ban was among the executive orders Trump signed on his first day in office, but has been losing in court ever since. Today’s ruling comes from a US district court judge in New Hampshire, and follows similar decisions by judges in Seattle and Maryland. The Trump administration is appealing the Seattle judge’s ruling.
Here’s more on the attempted ban, and its poor showing (thus far) in courtrooms nationwide:
Here’s more on the Trump administration’s legal offensive against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is being headed up by an architect of Project 2025 who is now a top White House official:
Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s newly installed acting head of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced on Saturday he had cut off the agency’s budget and reportedly instructed staff to suspend all activities including the supervision of companies overseen by the agency.
Reuters and NBC News reported that Vought wrote a memo to employees saying he had taken on the role of acting head of the agency, an independent watchdog that was founded in 2011 as an arm of the Federal Reserve to promote fairness in the financial sector.
Vought, who was confirmed on a party line vote last week to lead the office of management and budget, also announced on Saturday evening on Elon Musk’s social media platform X that he was zeroing out the CFPB’s funding for the next fiscal quarter, saying the more than $700m in cash on hand was sufficient.
In his Saturday missive, Vought ordered staff to “cease all supervision and examination activity”, going a step further than a directive issued last week by the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, whom Trump had briefly put in charge after firing Rohit Chopra.
According to an internal email obtained by Reuters, the Washington CFPB headquarters will be closed for the coming week and all employees are to work remotely.
