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Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday temporarily kept in place the Trump administration’s decision to freeze nearly $5 billion in foreign aid. The high court order is temporary, though it suggests that the justices will reverse a lower court ruling that withholding the funding was likely illegal.
Roberts acted on the administration’s emergency appeal to the Supreme Court in the case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid. President Donald Trump said last month that he would not spend the money, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.
It comes as the Supreme Court has recently handed Trump wins on immigration and oversight of the Federal Trade Commission.
The Trump administration has made deep reductions to foreign aid one of its hallmark policies, despite the relatively meager savings relative to the deficit and the possible damage to America’s reputation abroad.
Other news we’re following today:
- Supreme Court to quickly consider if Trump has power to impose sweeping tariffs: The justices will hear the case in November, a lightning-fast timetable by the court’s typical pace, and rule at some point after that. The tariffs will stay in place in the meantime. The court agreed to take up an appeal from the Trump administration after lower courts found most of his tariffs illegal. The small businesses and states that challenged the tariffs on goods from almost every country in the world say they have driven businesses nearly to bankruptcy.
- New Chicago ICE campaign prompts confusion over Trump’s plans for federal intervention: Blasting so-called sanctuary laws in Chicago and Illinois, the latest immigration operation by Homeland Security targets people without legal permission to live in the U.S. who have criminal records. The move stirred up fresh confusion and anxiety for residents on alert for Trump’s repeated promise of federal intervention.
- Trump calls Epstein birthday drawing a ‘dead issue’: After House Democrats released a picture of a birthday message, which features the drawing of a curvaceous woman, purportedly signed by Trump for Jeffrey Epstein, Republicans rushed to call the image fraudulent. Trump, who previously said he did not write such a letter, said Tuesday he wouldn’t “comment on something that’s a dead issue.” Trump sued the Wall Street Journal and its owner over a report that described such a page in detail.
