U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali sided with the aid organizations, granting an emergency nationwide restraining order on February 13. Days later, he escalated matters by issuing an enforcement order requiring the administration to release funds for completed work by February 26—a deadline that Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked just hours before it took effect.
Trump, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, and USAID Acting Deputy Administrator Peter Marocco, challenged the order, calling it overbroad and an improper constraint on presidential authority.
The Administration’s Defense: Presidential Authority at Risk?
In court filings, the Trump administration argued that forcing the immediate release of foreign aid funds would “commandeer federal payment processes” and undermine the president’s discretionary foreign-affairs powers.
“Ordering the United States to pay all pending requests under foreign-aid instruments—without verifying legitimacy or timing—intrudes on the executive branch’s prerogative,” the administration asserted in a brief.
