\n<\/p>\n
Critics argue President Trump has overstepped his constitutional authority by slashing congressionally approved aid.<\/em><\/p>\n A United States appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump can proceed with efforts to slash foreign aid payments, despite such funds being designated by Congress.<\/p>\n The two-to-one ruling on Wednesday overturned a previous injunction that required the Department of State to resume the payments, including about $4bn for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and $6bn for HIV and AIDS programmes.<\/p>\n But the majority opinion from the appeals court did not weigh the merits of whether Trump could nix congressionally approved funds.<\/p>\n Instead, it decided the case based on the idea that the plaintiffs did not meet the legal basis to qualify for a court injunction.<\/p>\n Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Karen Henderson said the groups in question \u201clack a cause of action to press their claims\u201d. They include the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Journalism Development Network, both recipients of federal aid.<\/p>\n \u201cThe grantees have failed to satisfy the requirements for a preliminary injunction in any event,\u201d wrote Henderson, who was appointed by former President George HW Bush.<\/p>\n She was joined in her decision by Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee.<\/p>\n However, the panel\u2019s third judge \u2014 Florence Pan, nominated under former President Joe Biden \u2014 issued a dissenting opinion that argued Trump should not be allowed to violate the separation of powers by cutting the aid.<\/p>\n \u201cThe court\u2019s acquiescence in and facilitation of the Executive\u2019s unlawful behaviour derails the carefully crafted system of checked and balanced power that serves as the greatest security against tyranny \u2014 the accumulation of excessive authority in a single Branch,\u201d Pan wrote in her opinion.<\/p>\n The ruling hands a victory to the Trump administration, which has faced a series of legal challenges to Trump\u2019s efforts to radically reshape the federal government.<\/p>\n That includes dramatic cuts to spending and government agencies like USAID, which was established by an act of Congress.<\/p>\n Almost immediately upon taking office, Trump announced a 90-day pause on all foreign aid.<\/p>\n He has since moved to gut USAID, prompting outcry from two of his predecessors, Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush.<\/p>\n By March, the Trump administration had announced it planned to fold USAID into the State Department, fundamentally dismantling the agency. That same month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said he had cancelled 83 percent of USAID\u2019s contracts.<\/p>\n Part of Trump\u2019s reasoning for these changes was to reduce \u201cwaste\u201d and \u201cbloat\u201d in the government. He also sought to better align government programming with his \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda.<\/p>\n But critics say the executive branch does not have the power to tear down congressionally mandated agencies. They also argue that Congress has the power to designate funds for aid, framing Trump\u2019s efforts as a push for extreme presidential power.<\/p>\n Republicans, however, control both houses of Congress, and in July, Congress passed the Rescission Act of 2025, allowing the government to claw back nearly $9bn in foreign aid and funding for public broadcasting.<\/p>\n US District Judge Amir Ali previously ruled that the Trump administration must pay its agreed-upon funds to humanitarian groups and other contractors that partnered with the government to distribute aid.<\/p>\n Administration officials in February estimated there was $2bn in outstanding aid payments due by the deadline Judge Ali set.<\/p>\n But the appeals court\u2019s ruling has set back cases to restore the foreign aid to the contractors.<\/p>\n Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the decision on Wednesday, stating that the Department of Justice would \u201ccontinue to successfully protect core Presidential authorities from judicial overreach\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Critics argue President Trump has overstepped his constitutional authority by slashing congressionally approved aid. A United States appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump can proceed with efforts to slash foreign aid payments, despite such funds being designated by Congress. The two-to-one ruling on Wednesday overturned a previous injunction that required the Department of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[1122,845,160,964,5678,258,9137,5539,150,5227,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-15586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-aid","9":"tag-appeals","10":"tag-court","11":"tag-donald","12":"tag-effort","13":"tag-foreign","14":"tag-injunction","15":"tag-lifts","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-slash","18":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}