President Donald Trump ordered a freeze starting Tuesday on potentially trillions of dollars in federal funding to Americans, impacting everything from education grants to small businesses loans — and sparking accusations that he is violating the constitution.
The order was issued by the White House budget office in a memo a week into Trump’s second term.
It was not clear in the memo, signed by acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Matthew Vaeth, how such a pause on disbursements of funding will work or for how long.
The extraordinary measure follows a similar announcement that US foreign aid is frozen.
Trump won the presidency in part on promises to dismantle large sections of the US government and to slash spending.
However, the aggressive shake-up is also aimed at making sure that federal spending programs — and government employees — support his right-wing political goals.
A senior Trump administration…
