Politics

Judge sets a 5-day deadline for the Donald Trump administration to start lifting its USAID funding freeze

Published

6 days ago

February 14, 2025

A federal Judge has ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to temporarily lift a funding freeze that has shut down U.S. humanitarian aid and development work around the world, and he has set a five-day deadline for the administration to prove it’s complying.

The Judge’s ruling late Thursday cited the financial devastation that the near-overnight cutoff of payments has caused suppliers and nonprofits that carry out much of U.S. aid overseas.

The ruling was the first to challenge the Republican administration’s funding freeze. It comes amid a growing number of lawsuits by government employees’ groups, aid groups and government suppliers asking courts to roll back the administration’s fast-paced dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and U.S. foreign assistance overall.

Trump and his aide Elon Musk say the six-decade-old aid agency and much of foreign assistance overall is out of line with the Republican President’s agenda.

Administration officials “have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended” contracts with thousands of nonprofit groups, businesses and others, “was a rational precursor to reviewing programs,” Judge Amir H. Ali said in his ruling.

Contractors, farmers and suppliers in the U.S. and around the world say the Trump administration’s funding freeze has stiffed them on hundreds of millions of dollars in pay for work already done, has forced them to lay off staff and is rapidly putting many near the point of financial collapse.

Farmers and other suppliers and contractors describe fortunes in undelivered food aid rotting in ports and other undelivered aid at risk of theft.

The Judge ordered the administration to notify every organization with an existing foreign-aid contract with the federal government of his temporary stay. He set a Tuesday deadline for the administration to show it had done so and was otherwise complying with the order.

There was no immediate public response from the Trump administration.

The Judge issued the temporary order in the U.S. in a lawsuit brought by two organizations, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, representing health organizations receiving U.S. funds for work abroad.

In his order, the Judge noted that the Trump administration argued it had to shut down funding for the thousands of USAID aid programs abroad to conduct a thorough review of each program and whether it should be eliminated.

However, lawyers for the administration had failed to show they had a “rational reason for disregarding … the countless small and large businesses that would have to shutter programs or shutter their businesses altogether,” the Judge added.

The ruling also bars Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other Trump officials from enforcing stop-work orders that the Trump administration and Musk have sent to the companies and organizations carrying out foreign aid orders.

The Judge also rejected the Trump administration’s argument that it was buffering the impact of the funding freeze, offering waivers to allow funding to keep flowing to some aid partners. He cited testimony that no such waiver system yet existed and that the online payment system at USAID no longer functioned.

In a separate ruling in another lawsuit Thursday, a Judge said his temporary block on a Trump administration order that would pull all but a fraction of USAID staffers off the job worldwide would stay in place at least another week.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols closely questioned the government about how it could keep aid staffers abroad safe on leave despite the administration’s dismantling of USAID. When a Justice Department attorney could not provide detailed plans, the Judge asked him to file court documents after the hearing.

USAID staffers who until recently were posted in Congo had filed affidavits for the lawsuit describing the aid agency all but abandoning them when looting and political violence exploded in Congo’s capital last month, leaving them to evacuate with their families.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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Politics

Pam Bondi welcomes terror designation for transnational cartels

Published

13 minutes ago

February 20, 2025

May Greene

Attorney General Pam Bondi believes that President Donald Trump’s designation of transnational cartels as terror groups will help the federal government fight their depredations at home and abroad.

“They are terrorist groups. And it gives us the ability to go after them anywhere in the world and treat them as terrorists. They are terrorists. If you’re bringing fentanyl into this country and killing our kids, you’re a terrorist and we’re coming after you,” Bondi said at CPAC 2025 in Washington, D.C.

Trump’s executive order last month said “cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States.”

“In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society. The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere. Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States.”

Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cártel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel de Golfo (Gulf Cartel), and Cárteles Unidos all have the domestic terror designation from the State Department.

Though the crackdown has begun, Bondi worries that the open border policy of the previous administration means that domestic terror from people already in the country is a “huge risk.”

“What Donald Trump has committed to do is to take these people out of our country to prosecute them, to deport them, to get them off our streets. And that’s what all of these law enforcement agencies are doing,” Bondi said Thursday.

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Politics

Donald Trump loyalist Kash Patel is confirmed as FBI director by the Senate despite deep Democratic doubts

Published

44 minutes ago

February 20, 2025

May Greene

‘The politicalization of our justice system has eroded public trust — but that ends today.’

The Senate on Thursday narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as director of the FBI, moving to place him atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency despite doubts from Democrats about his qualifications and concerns he will do Donald Trump’s bidding and go after the Republican president’s adversaries.

“I cannot imagine a worse choice,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told colleagues before the 51-49 vote by the GOP-controlled Senate. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the lone Republican holdouts.

A Trump loyalist who has fiercely criticized the agency he will now lead, Patel will inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades as national security threats have proliferated.

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Politics

Last Call for 2.20.25 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida

Published

1 hour ago

February 20, 2025

May Greene

Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

Florida’s Governor is one of several new faces on the presidentially appointed Council of Governors.

President Donald Trump announced that Gov. Ron DeSantis is part of a wave of picks to the “bipartisan group of state leaders tasked with strengthening state-federal partnerships on key national security, disaster response, and military coordination issues.”

Trump also appointed Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and North Carolina Democrat Gov. Josh Stein as Co-Chairs.

Republican Governors Brian Kemp of Georgia, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, and Henry McMaster of South Carolina are among the new regular members.

Additionally, Trump empaneled Democratic Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York, Wes Moore of Maryland, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

DeSantis will be in Washington, D.C., on Friday, where he has said that he intends to press the Trump administration on a variety of issues. These include the Atlantic red snapper season, relocating NASA to Florida, federal block grant funding of Everglades restoration projects, changing guidelines for college accreditation and importing pharmaceuticals from Canada.

Read more on Florida Politics.

Evening Reads

—”This is what happens when the DOGE guys take over” via Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, Matteo Wong, and Shane Harris of The Atlantic

—“Donald Trump comes close to the red line of openly defying judges, experts say” via Justin Jouvenal, Leo Sands and Ann E. Marimow of The Washington Post

—”Emergency food, TB tests and HIV drugs: Vital health aid remains frozen despite court ruling” via Stephanie Nolen of The New York Times

—”Trump banned gender-affirming care for teens. now, these families are in chaos” via Alex Morris of Rolling Stone

—”‘He could have been the king’: Gov. Ron DeSantis praises George Washington’s restraint while unveiling statue” via Gabrielle Russon of Florida Politics

—“Trump taps DeSantis for bipartisan Council of Governors” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics

—“In Trump’s DC, K Street clamors for Florida-linked lobbyists” via POLITICO

—”Florida sues Target for ‘leftist agenda that sexualized children,’ harm to retirement fund” via Jeffrey Schweers of the Orlando Sentinel

—”One state’s flawed, desperate new plan to fix its egg shortage” via Kenny Torrella of Vox

—”USF outlines plans for upcoming presidential search” via Ian Hodgson of the Tampa Bay Times

Quote of the Day

“He could have been the king of the United States of America if he wanted to do it.”

— Ron DeSantis, revealing a new bronze George Washington statue in the State Capitol Rotunda.

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Breakthrough Insights

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MLS Season kicks off Saturday

MLS Season kicks off on Saturday. Inter Miami hosts NYCFC while Orlando City hosts Philadelphia

The regular season kicks off in Major League Soccer on Saturday when Inter Miami hosts NYCFC (7:30 p.m. ET, Apple TV+) and Orlando City hosts the Philadelphia Union (7:30 p.m. ET, Apple TV+).

This is the 30th season of the league.

Inter Miami finished last season with the best record in MLS and qualified for round one of the 2025 League Cup and CONCACAF Champions Cup. However, the postseason did not go well for Inter Miami, as they lost in round one to Atlanta United in a best-of-three series.

Two Inter Miami stars scored 20 goals, tied for second-best in the league. Both Lionel Messi and Louis Suarez each scored a hat trick during the season as part of their 20-goal years. Messi also added 16 assists, tied for third-best in the league. Both are back with the club for the 2025 season.

Miami’s opening match opponent, NYFCF, finished seventh place in the Eastern Conference last season.

Orlando finished in fourth place in the Eastern Conference in 2024 and beat Atlanta United in the conference semifinals before being eliminated by the New York Red Bulls in the finals. Facundo Torres scored 20 goals to become the all-time leading goal scorer in club history with 47 goals.

Philadelphia missed the playoffs last season, finishing with nine wins in 34 matches.

The regular season runs until Oct. 18, with the playoffs to follow.

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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.

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