A federal judge has temporarily lifted a hold on financing for US aid and development programs imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration, according to court documents obtained by AFP on Friday. Judge Amir Ali, appointed by Joe Biden in November, barred the Trump administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing” foreign assistance money, according to Thursday’s decision. The Trump administration has suspended global aid money, forced thousands of international staff to return to the United States, and begun reducing the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) headcount of 10,000 employees to about 300. This has called the work of USAID in some of the world’s poorest countries into question. The agency has a budget of $42.8 billion, which represents 42% of humanitarian A federal judge has temporarily lifted a hold on financing for US aid and development programs imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration, according to court documents obtained by AFP on Friday. Judge Amir Ali, appointed by Joe Biden in November, barred the Trump administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing” foreign assistance money, according to Thursday’s decision. The Trump administration has suspended global aid money, forced thousands of international staff to return to the United States, and begun reducing the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) headcount of 10,000 employees to about 300. This has called the work of USAID in some of the world’s poorest countries into question. The agency has a budget of $42.8 billion, which represents 42% of humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide
The latest court ruling also prohibits the government from “issuing, implementing, enforcing, or otherwise giving effect to terminations, suspensions, or stop-work orders” related to existing contracts beginning January 19, 2025.
The court declared that the “stated purpose in implementing the suspension of all foreign aid is to provide the opportunity to review programs for their efficiency and consistency with priorities.” “However, at least to date, Defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organisations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programmes,” according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are or represent groups of small and large enterprises and health and journalistic charities that receive government grant money to do international assistance operations.
‘Woodchipper’ Trump, who began his second term last month, has launched a campaign led by his top donor Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government. The most concentrated fire has been on USAID, the key body for administering US humanitarian aid around the world with health and emergency programs in roughly 120 nations. Trump has stated USAID was “run by radical lunatics” and Musk has called it as a “criminal organisation” needs to be put “through the woodchipper.” Newly confirmed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that USAID, created by his uncle, the late President John F. Kennedy, has become a “sinister propagator of totalitarianism.” Trump removed the independent inspector general for USAID this week, according to US media outlets reported.

Paul Martin’s dismissal came a day after his office issued a report critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency, the Washington Post, CNN and others reported