--- title: Trump's Funding Freeze Heads to Court. What Could Happen Next description: As Trump's funding freeze heads to court, he hopes judges grant him the power of impoundment. What is impoundment? And why does it matter? canonical: https://time.com/7210782/trump-freezes-federal-aid-impoundment/ author: Eric Cortellessa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-01-29T03:14:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-10T23:33:24.385Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Trump Welcomes Court Fight Over Funding Freeze og:description: As Trump's funding freeze heads to court, he hopes judges grant him the power of impoundment. What is impoundment? And why does it matter? og:url: https://time.com/7210782/trump-freezes-federal-aid-impoundment/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefab5098d8c3bd84/6998b2d193610cae6dc2d6f0/GettyImages-2195763069.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Trump Welcomes Court Fight Over Funding Freeze twitter:description: As Trump's funding freeze heads to court, he hopes judges grant him the power of impoundment. What is impoundment? And why does it matter? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefab5098d8c3bd84/6998b2d193610cae6dc2d6f0/GettyImages-2195763069.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump’s Funding Freeze Will be Fought in Court. That Could Land Him More Power. > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7d3e3b45-7497-40ef-a2a6-8bb880486dcd&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Eric Cortellessa](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa Senior Correspondent Jan 29, 2025 3:14 AM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as , White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt watches on Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Jan. 27, 2025. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as , White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt watches on Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Jan. 27, 2025. Mandel Ngan—AFP via Getty Images  by [Eric Cortellessa](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa Senior Correspondent Jan 29, 2025 3:14 AM UTC After one full week in office, President Donald Trump sent a signal that his transformation of Washington was soon to take full force: The White House [released](https://rollcall.com/2025/01/27/trump-white-house-orders-freeze-on-federal-grants-loans/) an order Monday night to pause as much as [$3 trillion](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/28/us/trump-news-executive-orders) in federal grants and loans. The earth-shattering disruption, officials said, was so the administration could conduct an across-the-board review of federal funding to tear out progressive initiatives and ensure government spending complied with Trump’s barrage of executive orders. It was exactly the kind of thing Trump promised on the campaign trail. But it blew up before it even got started. After a [chaotic day](https://time.com/7210734/trump-funding-freeze-medicaid/) marked by uncertainty over which programs were covered under the vaguely worded memo, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan [blocked](https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-pause-federal-grants-aid-f9948b9996c0ca971f0065fac85737ce?user%5Femail=4011bda061c4f8f680ca758bb4255e2cf29abba5a8ec3a80cf06c0fc41d53744&utm%5Fmedium=APNews%5FAlerts&utm%5Fsource=Sailthru%5FAP&utm%5Fcampaign=NewsAlert%5FJan28%5F2025%5F05:06PM&utm%5Fterm=AP%20News%20Alerts) federal agencies from implementing the freezeminutes before it was supposed to take effect. She scheduled oral arguments for the case next week. That may set up the first major test of Trump 2.0\. If it succeeds, it could restore a presidential power last wielded by Richard Nixon and expedite the radical reshaping of government Trump outlined as a candidate. If it fails, Trump could still win by losing. Some in his inner circle see the dramatic action as a strategic move to flood the zone and move the Overton window, paving the way for more of the President’s boundary-pushing policymaking in the months and years to come. However it unfolds will affect the lives of millions of Americans who rely on myriad forms of federal assistance, as well as U.S. aid recipients overseas such as Ukraine and nations [fighting](https://rollcall.com/2025/01/28/pause-to-aids-funding-leaves-health-experts-scrambling/) [crises](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/us/politics/trump-rubio-foreign-aid.html) ranging from famine to an HIV/AIDS epidemic. The stakes are also high for the Trump Administration, which risks appearing impotent shortly after taking power. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget sent a memo Monday requiring federal agencies to “identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements.” It specifically targeted “DEI, woke gender ideology and the Green New Deal,” referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs intended to ensure increased opportunities formarginalized groups, and a sweeping climate proposal that has never passed Congress. “They're taking inventory,” a White House official tells TIME. The Administration is evaluating funding allocations and asking: “Is it working? Is it following the President's mission? Yes or no? If not, then boom—it goes.” The seemingly slapdash document to overhaul the nation’s spending priorities created confusion throughout the federal government. Many civil servants were unsure what it meant for the fate of thousands of programs that Americans rely on, such as Medicaid and the Head Start preschool program. Democrats derided the move as destructive and unconstitutional. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, argued that it violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which [prohibits](https://democrats-budget.house.gov/resources/reports/impoundment-control-act-1974-what-it-why-does-it-matter) the President from withholding congressionally-authorized funds. "It's a dagger at the heart of the average American family in red states and blue states, in cities, in suburbs, in rural areas," Schumer said. “It is just outrageous.” Throughout the campaign, Trump promised to restore the power of impoundment as part of his professed “War on Washington.” The maneuver was one of Nixon’s favorites; he used his authority to block funding for subsidized housing and the Environmental Protection Agency. Shortly afterNixon left office in disgrace, Congress passed a law to ban its practice. The President and some of his closest advisors, including his nominee to lead OMB Russel Vought, have been planning to challenge the 1974 statute’s constitutionality during Trump’s second term. “There's a couple of different approaches that you could take,” Vought told TIME last year. “One is to test the view in the courts by making some of these decisions to hold back money or one is to go and try to get the law overturned.” With the courts soon to rule on Trump’s order, that test is now coming to a head. Some of the nation’s preeminent conservative legal scholars also consider a President unilaterally impounding congressionally-appropriated funds a bridge too far. “Much of what he is doing either exceeds the Supreme Court’s current conceptions of the limits of presidential power or at least are very aggressive and contested assertions of presidential power,” [wrote](https://executivefunctions.substack.com/p/maximum-executive-power-and-the-fate) Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who served in the George W. Bush Administration, in a Substack column. Ultimately, the courts will adjudicate whether Trump’s far-reaching memo passes legal muster—or whether he will face the first major impediment to him delivering on a revolutionary campaign promise. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7210782/trump-freezes-federal-aid-impoundment/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7210782/trump-freezes-federal-aid-impoundment/"},"headline":"Trump’s Funding Freeze Will be Fought in Court. 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