Yesterday, the Trump administration rescinded its across-the-board federal funding freeze issued on Monday night in a win for democracy and a loss for Russell Vought. New reporting reveals that the Vought pushed out the freeze without getting proper sign-off from the White House, leaving Trump and his advisors furious after Vought forced the administration to pause all federal grants and loan disbursements in what was described as “blatantly illegal,” and a “massive, massive power grab” unilaterally withholding funding for disaster aid, farms, cancer research, schools.
SHOT: Trump and His Team Deferred To Russell Vought On Freezing Federal Grants and Impoundment. Back in November, when Trump nominated Vought for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Vought said that Trump “has to move executively as fast and as aggressively as possible, with a radical constitutional perspective, to be able to dismantle [the power of federal agencies and civil servants].” He made good on that promise by unilaterally announcing a federal freeze on grant funding. In an interview with CNN, Trump’s Deputy Chief Of Staff Stephen Miller, said the administration’s move to freeze all federal grants was because “Vought felt that the freeze was needed,” and Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reportedly said Vought asked her to convey that “the line to his office is open” if agency heads “feel that programs are necessary.”
CHASER: President Trump and His Advisors “Furious” At Vought’s Memo. “President Trump was angered by the media coverage of the order and its aftershocks, according to a person who spoke to him. […] In private, senior Trump advisers were furious that they were not read into the process. Some felt that the resulting mess gave Democrats their best opening since Mr. Trump’s election victory to rally public opposition against the administration.” [The New York Times, 1/29/25]
LIME: The Trump White House Was “Shocked” By Vought’s Memo and Denies Seeing It Before It Went Out. According to the Atlantic, the Trump White House was “shocked” by the memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which was reportedly “released without going through the usual White House approval processes…produced by the budget office alone, which failed to get proper sign-off from the White House.” Stephen Miller’s team even requested to see the memo before it went out, but OMB supposedly never sent it over. [The Atlantic, 1/29/25]