Judge blocks Trump order to freeze funds for Medicaid, food stamps and other assistance – National & International News – TUE 28Jan2025

 

A White House memo freezing federal spending sparked uncertainty and chaos across the country. 

White House puts New Jersey drone mystery to rest.

 

Judge blocks Trump order to freeze funds for Medicaid, food stamps and other assistance

There has been much confusion throughout the day about a memo leaked from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the story continues to develop. Earlier today, the OMB leaked a memo freezing all federal grants, loans and other assistance effective today. 

The memo was unclear about what programs were to be cut off. The wording suggested that it would affect programs on which millions of Americans depend, including Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps, Meals on Wheels, student loans, farm subsidies, small business assistance, etc. 

This sparked nationwide chaos as states reported that their portals for Medicaid payments were down. Three major non-profit organizations and attorneys general from 22 states also announced that they were suing the Trump administration over the freeze.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the funding freeze was a temporary step to give Trump officials time to assess what funding was going to programs that conflict with Trump’s policy agenda. The aim was to stop funding for environmental programs and programs that promote, as she put it, “transgenderism and woke-ness”. She claimed that this would not affect programs that Americans depend on, although that was not spelled out in the order.

Later in the afternoon, a second OMB memo was leaked to the press. This memo clarified that the freeze would not affect funds for Medicaid, Head Start, farm subsidies, small business and rental assistance.

Chaos averted temporarily 

Minutes before the order was to go into effect, US District Judge Loren AliKhan temporarily blocked it. AliKhan ordered that “open awards” would not be blocked until at least February 3. Hopefully by then the White House will have decided which programs it actually wants to block without causing disruption to millions of Americans. 

However, US law requires that funds already appropriated and approved by Congress must be spent for their intended purpose, even if they go to programs that the president doesn’t like. Members of Trump’s administration are openly seeking to challenge this principle. There will be many more court fights over this in the near future.

 

White House says New Jersey drones were “authorized by FAA”

While uncertainty reigned over federal assistance programs, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was at least able to clear up one mystery during her first press briefing. Leavitt said that the drones seeing flying over New Jersey and other northeastern states late last year were “authorized to be flown by the [Federal Aviation Administration] for research and various other reasons”.

In November and December 2024, thousands of sightings of low-flying drones, many of them much larger than commercially-available hobby drones, were reported across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut. There was something of a panic at the time as law enforcement and other local and state officials were unable to get any answers from federal authorities over the disruptive phenomenon. Some of the more outlandish theories suggested that Iran was somehow behind it. The Biden White House offered little comment at the time except to say that many of the sightings were simply hobby drones and that some of the larger “drones” were simply small manned aircraft.

Leavitt said today that, many of the drones were flown by “hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”

During the New Jersey drone sightings, some experts speculated that a “special access program” could be behind it. These top secret US government programs often have fewer than a dozen officials who are privy to their activities.

This may, or may not, put to rest speculation over other instances where drones have been seen flying over sensitive airspace. From October to December 2023, swarms of drones were seen flying over sensitive military installations in different parts of the country, including nuclear facilities. A year later, senior military officials were still stumped. 

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).