Update at 5:30 p.m.: Shortly before Trump’s order was set to go into effect, a federal judge blocked it until next Monday, February 3, allowing time for the legal battle over the memo to play out.
President Donald Trump’s order yesterday evening suspending funding for federal grants and loans has thrown Washington into chaos – and Senator Andy Kim says that’s the point.
At a Senate Democratic press conference today, Kim argued that the White House’s order – which seemingly orders federal agencies to pause nearly all payments outside of Medicare, Social Security, and direct assistance to individuals beginning today at 5 p.m., though exactly how far reaching it will be is still being determined – was designed to cause problems rather than fix them.
“Chaos is the point, because chaos is their plan,” Kim said. “This is going exactly as they want it to go. They could have chosen a different way to try to figure out how to be more effective and efficient if that was actually their goal, but their goal is to sow chaos. And I hope the American people see this, because this is the style of quote-unquote ‘governing’ that we will see for the next four years.”
Much is still unclear about what the order’s effects will be, and members of Congress are evidently still working through how to respond; the press conference at which Kim spoke this morning was originally intended to focus on Trump’s January 6 pardons before being changed at the last minute to reflect the new crisis.
According to the memo obtained by several news outlets last night, the funding freeze is meant to combat “wokeness” in federal spending; “the use of Federal resources intended to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” it states. The memo orders agencies to submit information to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by February 10 on how their spending can better reflect the new administration’s goals.
But Democrats in New Jersey and elsewhere are quickly fighting back. New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a federal lawsuit arguing that Trump does not have the authority to pause or revoke funding appropriated by Congress, and according to the New York Times, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin plans on adding New Jersey to the suit as well.
“Trump’s directive to freeze all federal aid is reckless and a blatant violation of the rule of law,” Platkin said on social media this morning. “We are reviewing this action now, but one thing is already clear – this will greatly harm New Jerseyans and raise costs for working families.”
Senate Democrats are also trying to use another tool to fight the order: delaying the confirmation of Russell Vought, Trump’s nominee to lead the OMB, who is set for a Budget Committee vote later this week. Kim already voted against Vought’s nomination last week when it came before the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, and it certainly does not sound like he regrets that vote.
“What we see right now – whether it’s the actions we see with OMB, or the firing of inspector generals and the independent advisors there, or what we saw at USAID and the leadership there – it’s showing that the defining phrase of Trump’s administration isn’t the Golden Age,” Kim said at this morning’s press conference. “It’s a phrase that he used during the campaign: the enemy from within.”