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A court victory for Trump’s foreign aid cuts, briefly explained
The Trump administration will be allowed to withhold billions in foreign aid.
Cameron Peters is a staff editor at Vox.
Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration’s decision to cancel billions in foreign aid can stand, a federal appeals court said today, in a major blow to global humanitarian aid.
What did the court actually decide? A three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the plaintiffs in the case weren’t eligible to bring the suit in the first place.
The majority found that only the Government Accountability Office can challenge the administration’s decision to withhold congressionally appropriated funds under a specific process laid out in the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
What’s the context for this decision? Donald Trump and Elon Musk made US foreign aid programs one of their first targets upon taking power in January. Musk boasted about feeding the US Agency for International Development “into the wood chipper,” and Trump withheld billions in spending already authorized by Congress.
A number of humanitarian nonprofits sued to restore the withheld funds, alleging it was an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers — but today’s ruling punts on that question altogether, instead focusing on procedure.
What will the impact of this freeze be? To put it simply, US foreign aid saves lives, and cutting it will cost them. Among the money the Trump administration will now be allowed to withhold is billions of dollars in funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and other global health programs.
As the New York Times calculated earlier this year, the potential death toll for slashing US aid is more than 1.5 million people in 2025 alone; many, including young children, have already died.
What else should I know? Separate from the human impact, this is a significant decision for the Trump administration’s efforts to impound congressionally appropriated funds, for foreign aid and other purposes. Unless or until the GAO sues over impoundment, the administration can keep at it and keep chipping away at the separation of powers in the process.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
You know what The Logoff hasn’t featured in a while? That’s right — an animal livestream. Today I’m spotlighting one of my favorites from Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska.
The park’s grizzly bear population is currently hard at work catching salmon to fatten up for the winter, and you can watch them do it here (they’re doing a great job). I hope it’s a lighter moment for your evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.
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