Can Trump Just Pause Federal Funds?
What A Day
What A Day
4.6 • 12.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
A federal judge late Tuesday paused a sweeping order from the Trump administration to temporarily freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans. It was welcome news amid a day of total chaos that left everyone from lawmakers to hospital administrators to preschool teachers scrambling to figure out what the hell the administration’s Monday night directive meant for them. White House officials spent the day insisting the funding pause was legal, even as they were forced to clarify its scope throughout the day. Casey Burgat, director of the Legislative Affairs program at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, explains why the administration faces an uphill legal battle defending it's order.
And in headlines: Newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wants everyone to know she’s a ‘Hot Mama,’ the Trump administration offers deferred resignation to government employees, and President Donald Trump signed another executive order targeting trans people.
Show Notes:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Wednesday, January 29th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is Waddey. The show staring at the new Axios poll saying that Republicans now trust Trump as much as their own doctor when it comes to making personal health decisions. So we can assume their doctors are not very good at doctoring. |
| 0:28.6 | On today's show, |
| 0:30.8 | newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security, |
| 0:33.7 | Kristy Knoem wants everyone to know she's a hot mama. |
| 0:38.5 | And President Donald Trump signs another executive order targeting trans people. |
| 0:43.1 | But first, Tuesday afternoon, a federal judge paused a sweeping order from the Trump administration to temporarily freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans. |
| 0:47.8 | It was welcome news after a day where the nation devolved into abject chaos as everyone from |
| 0:52.9 | lawmakers to hospital administrators to preschool |
| 0:55.5 | teachers tried to figure out what in the hell the administration meant with its Monday night |
| 1:00.8 | order. Medicaid reimbursement portals went down in every state. It jeopardized federal payments |
| 1:05.8 | to state health care programs that cover treatments for millions of low-income Americans. |
| 1:10.3 | The same thing happened with Head Start, the federal early childhood education millions of low-income Americans. The same thing happened with |
| 1:11.4 | Head Start, the federal early childhood education program for low-income kids. Providers said they |
| 1:16.9 | lost access to the federal government's payment website, potentially upending things like payroll. |
| 1:22.1 | Nonprofits, universities, medical research centers, housing assistance programs, all were left |
| 1:27.0 | scrambling in the wake of the |
| 1:28.1 | funding freeze. The mess and panic finally gave Democrats something resembling a spine to forcefully |
| 1:32.9 | stand up to Trump. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said the administration's actions were illegal. |
| 1:38.2 | Donald Trump's administration is lying to you. The White House's attempt to walk back what they did today does not match what we |
| 1:47.5 | saw on the ground. More than 20 state attorneys general have sued, so have some businesses and |
| 1:53.2 | nonprofits. But all the while, the White House defended the funding phrase is like, no big deal, |
| 1:58.3 | even as it spent the day trying to clarify the scope of the order. |
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