"The use of Federal resources 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," said a memo from Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The pause takes effect at 5 p.m. ET, and it's unclear from the memo how sweeping it will be. Vaeth said that all spending must comply with Trump's executive orders, which are intended to undo the push for far-left agenda in areas such as climate change and DEI programs.
Vaeth wrote that “each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders."
Medicare and Social Security benefits will be unaffected, according to the memo. But there was no explanation of whether the pause would affect Medicaid, food stamps, disaster assistance and other programs. The memo said it should be implemented “to the extent permissible under applicable law.”
Court battles are imminent, and Democratic attorneys general announced a lawsuit asking a federal judge to block the Republican president's moves. One of them, New York Attorney General Letitia James, calls the freeze “reckless, dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional.” Democrats and independent organizations described the pause as capricious and illegal because Congress had already authorized the money.
The issue dominated the first briefing held by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She said the administration was trying to be “good stewards” of public money by making sure that there was "no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness.”
