Judge Blocks Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze, Calls It ‘Irrational’—So Much for Draining the Swamp

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Addie Andrus
February 15, 2025
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9 minutes read

Left: U.S. President Donald Trump pauses as he talks to journalists who are members of the White house travel pool on board Air Force One during his flight to Palm Beach, Florida while over South Carolina, U.S., February 3, 2017. Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters

A federal judge just dealt a major blow to the Trump administration’s attempt to shut down U.S. foreign aid, ruling that the sudden funding freeze is causing widespread damage.

AP News reported that on Thursday, Judge Amir Ali ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift its three-week freeze on U.S. aid and development work worldwide. The ruling followed complaints from nonprofit organizations and contractors, who argued that the sudden halt left them unpaid and forced widespread layoffs.

This is the second major court ruling against Trump’s effort to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which has been around for over 60 years. Trump and his ally, Elon Musk, have claimed the agency doesn’t align with their vision and have been pushing to scale it back dramatically.

USAID offices — The USAID flag flies outside the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)

Judge Ali didn’t hold back in his ruling, calling out the administration for failing to justify why a blanket suspension of all USAID programs was necessary. The administration had argued that it needed time to review each aid program and decide whether to eliminate them, but the judge wasn’t convinced.

“Administration officials have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended contracts with thousands of nonprofit groups, businesses, and others, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs,” Ali stated.

The freeze affected a huge range of projects, leaving farmers, suppliers, and contractors both in the U.S. and abroad without hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for work they had already completed.

us judge hammer — (Brian A. Jackson/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

The lawsuit that led to the ruling was filed by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, representing health organizations that rely on U.S. funding for international programs. The ruling also blocks Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other Trump officials from enforcing stop-work orders that had been sent out to organizations carrying out foreign aid projects.

Trump’s executive order, issued on January 20, put a halt to all foreign aid contracts, but Judge Ali made it clear that any agreements in place before that date must continue to be honored.

The administration also tried to argue that it was softening the blow by offering waivers to keep some funding flowing. But Ali wasn’t buying that either, pointing out that no such waiver system actually existed yet, and USAID’s online payment system wasn’t even functioning.

For now, this ruling is a major win for aid organizations and contractors who have been left scrambling. But with Trump’s team determined to overhaul USAID, this fight is far from over.