A federal judge has given the Trump administration less than two days to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid.

Summary

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in blocked foreign aid within 48 hours, citing noncompliance with a 13-day-old court order.

The freeze, imposed by Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order, halted funding for USAID and State Department programs, affecting hundreds of millions of dollars owed to nonprofits and businesses.

The cutoff forced tens of thousands of layoffs and jeopardized critical aid projects. Despite the Feb. 13 ruling, no payments resumed.

This follows another case where a judge found the administration failed to unfreeze trillions in domestic grants and loans.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
      21·
      2 hours ago

      Technically, yes. The unconstitutional actions taken by the executive branch have been challenged by the judiciary branch. If the executive branch does not comply, the next step is pressing charges. Failure to do so would be a constitutional crisis.

      This is far from the first time that a president overstepped their authority. Trump was checked in his last term over the Muslim ban, for example. Even Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus without authority.

      This would be the first time in US history that the president is not held accountable for failing to comply with a federal court order.