(Photo Chip Somodevilla)
The Supreme Court temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to withhold $4 billion in foreign aid funds.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, ordered the administration to pay out billions of dollars in foreign aid on Wednesday
In a brief order, Chief Justice John Roberts allowed Trump, for now, to hold back funds he notified Congress that he would not spend on Aug. 28. Roberts asked groups suing over the funds to file a response by Friday.
If Ali’s order remained in place, the administration would have to spend the funds by Sept. 30, when they expire.
The Trump administration asked the justices to step in on Monday, arguing the lower court’s order “raises a grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers.”
“To have any hope of complying in time, the Executive Branch would have to immediately commence diplomatic discussions with foreign nations about the use of those funds—discussions the President considers counterproductive to foreign policy—and notify Congress about planned obligations that the President is strongly opposing,” Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices in the application.
Russ Vought, Director of the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB), speaks at the National Conservative Convention in Washington D.C., Sept. 3, 2025. (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump used a procedure known as a “pocket recision” to cancel the funding, which is when a president notifies Congress of plans to withhold the money near the end of the fiscal year, leaving no time for a response to the request.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought defended Trump’s use of a pocket recision Sept. 3 at the National Conservatism Conference.
“We would never view that Congress doesn’t have the power of the purse, but the executive has the power to spend,” Vought said.
