In a blatantly illegal and unconstitutional move, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget issued a memo on Monday ordering a freeze in federal funding, and repercussions immediately rippled across the country. The memo has apparently been abruptly rescinded this afternoon, but the couple days of chaos and confusion the two-page order unleashed is clarifying about the priorities and tactics of Trump and his goons. They are not afraid to kick off nationwide panics, spark constitutional crises, or threaten vast swathes of vulnerable Americans—the point is to be cruel and to punish.
The now-defunct document is mostly written in bland bureaucratic commands, but is riddled with mentions of the buzzword-bloated obsessions of the right: DEI, wokeness, the Green New Deal. In short, anything that runs counter to their desire to impose a more segregated society.
The freeze was broad in scope, specifying no way to unfreeze the funding—it took a complete backing off to stop it. The brief note seems clearly designed to scare the entire government into paralysis. Scare tactics like this aren’t so easily rolled back, and I’m not sure that the people and organizations who were threatened by Mondays blanket de-funding are feeling fully at ease.
One of the goals of the memo seemed to be moving everything under the executive’s control, and to enforce maximal fealty and groveling: “OMB may grant exceptions allowing Federal agencies to issue new awards or take other actions on a case-by-case basis.” This is another mechanism to force a specific and revanchist hierarchy, and I’m sure it won’t be their last attempt to try and bring Americans to heel.
Like so many of the big swings this new administration is attempting, this move was obviously unconstitutional—the power to collect and spend money is plainly the power of the legislature in the Constitution. Given the current roster on the Supreme Court, though, the interpretation that is obvious to every child in a civics class might not be the same one that our Smartest and Not-At-All Corrupt Judges come to. (There’s a more in-depth explainer on the idea of impoundment in Steve Vladeck’s newsletter.)
What remains frightening about this attempt at blanket defunding was its scale. It put at risk funding for fire departments, road repairs, nonprofits, veterans shelters, Providence’s Sojourner House for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, school meals, Head Start, homeless shelters, hospitals, the AIDS Foundation Chicago, university research, public schools, cancer treatment trials, Title I teaching positions, housing vouchers, the retrofitting of the Golden Gate Bridge, Meals on Wheels, infrastructure, Medicaid, and—as Los Angeles continues to burn—disaster relief.
Libraries were especially threatened. The Institute of Museum and Library Services—a federal agency that “envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by”—still had a banner on their home page this afternoon reading:
Notice to Grantees: Please be aware that, due to Executive Orders and OMB guidance regarding potentially unallowable grant payments, IMLS is taking additional measures to process payments. Reviews of applicable programs and payments may result in delays or other actions.
The pro-library organization, EveryLibrary released a statement on the effect the illegal pause would have:
State Libraries use federal LSTA funds to support interlibrary loan services, educational databases, and their staff, which supports all the libraries in their states. Many public libraries receive direct grants for programs, collections, and staffing that enable them to serve their communities. Because of these grants, archives and museums across the country are able to do their important work. And numerous library non-profits and associations have to suspend or halt their activities because of this freeze.
Rhode Island’s libraries, for example, were set to lose funding for new projects:
The library network expects federal money for enhancements to the libraries’ children and teen collections—a $100,000 earmark won with the support of US Sen. Jack Reed. Another federal investment, dispensed via the city of Providence, is a $125,000 grant to replace the HVAC system at the Mount Pleasant Library.
If it wasn’t already obvious, this will not be a government that champions literacy or books. Nonprofits, including those that work in the literacy and books, will continue to be targeted. The head of the National Council of Nonprofits, which is one of the organizations bringing suit against this budget freeze, issued a statement on the gravity of the potential OMB defunding efforts:
This order is a potential 5-alarm fire for nonprofits and the people and communities they serve. From pausing research on cures for childhood cancer to closing homeless shelters, halting food assistance, reducing safety from domestic violence, and shutting down suicide…
–Diane Yentel (@dianeyentel) January 28, 2025
This attempt at a national freeze comes on the heels of a related choking of international development assistance. The billions America sends abroad for health, eduction, and other initiatives was stopped nearly across the board, with exceptions made for Israel and Egypt, the two states currently penning in Palestinians. PEN America condemned this “assault on civil society”:
Many independent local media outlets will also be weakened, limiting their ability to do their work, and to report on the many layered impacts of this suspension. Authoritarians are surely celebrating the devastation of the civil society they have long sought to silence.
Though the administration has backed down for now, this mass defunding clarifies the stakes, targets, and scale of change these hog-men are envisioning. Judging by the roller-coaster of the last three days, this seems likely to be a long and exhausting fight. These are people who hate the American system of government and many Americans too, and orders like this one, that defy and break the rules, seems to be the goal. The blanket aggression reveals the depth of the lawlessness, rank corruption, and punishment that this administration hopes to thrust on us all. They are wrecking things.
We’re all learning how to react and respond to all of this, one day at a time. Solidarity always: take care of each other, lend a hand to those more vulnerable than you, and throw sand in the bastards’ faces however you can.
