Trump Officials Ordered by Judge to Lift Freeze on USAID Funding

A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order cutting financing for foreign assistance programs administered by the US Agency for International Development.

US District Judge Amir Ali in Washington said in a written ruling late Thursday he was convinced that unless he halted the administration’s actions, “the scale of the enormous harm that has already occurred will almost certainly increase.”

The order comes after USAID has seen thousands of staff fired or put on leave and even its name stripped off its Washington headquarters. Trump’s Jan. 30 executive order immediately stopped all congressionally appropriated foreign assistance funding ...