Divided Supreme Court Denies Trump‘s Emergency Bid to Cancel Nearly $2 Billion in USAID

US Supreme Court has denied Trump‘s emergency bid to cancel nearly $2 billion in USAID spending.

“I am stunned.” The Supreme Court 5-4 ruled that a sole judge can order billions of dollars out the door–unrecoverable. Justice Alito’s shock is appropriate.

Justice Roberts and Amy Barrett sided with the far-left justices. Barrett continues to be a perpetual disappointment.

BREAKING: US Supreme Court has denied Trump‘s emergency bid to cancel nearly $2 billion in USAID spending. pic.twitter.com/ogm8HFS0em

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 5, 2025

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has ruled that President Trump must unfreeze $1.9 billion in foreign USAID payments. Unbelievable.

Justice Samuel Alito BLASTS the majority with Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh joining in dissent:

“Does a single district-court judge who… pic.twitter.com/mt8eL4yj7L

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 5, 2025

The Supreme Court’s ruling forcing President Trump to unfreeze $1.9 billion in USAID foreign aid payments is a gut punch to his agenda and a disgrace to common sense. Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent—backed by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh—nails it: no single district judge should have the unchecked power to siphon off billions of taxpayer dollars, likely lost forever. Alito’s stunned reaction mirrors what conservatives have been shouting for years—Washington’s out of control, and this decision proves it.

Trump’s move to freeze that aid was spot-on, targeting waste like LGBTQ initiatives in Lesotho or migrant shelters in New York that do nothing for Americans. He’s right to demand accountability, but now a rogue judge and a shaky Supreme Court majority have undercut him, handing billions to foreign projects while U.S. cities crumble. This smells like the same elitist nonsense Biden and Harris pushed—pouring money overseas while inflation and crime ate away at home.

The Biden-Harris years set the stage for this mess, with Democrats cheering every dollar sent abroad as “humanitarian” while ignoring the border crisis and economic pain here. They propped up the USAID bureaucracy, letting it balloon into a slush fund for globalist pet projects. Trump’s trying to clean it up, but this ruling shows the deep state’s still fighting back, using the courts to thwart his America-first vision.

Conservatives see Alito’s dissent as a rallying cry. Trump’s picks—Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Thomas—stood firm, but the majority’s betrayal stings. This isn’t justice; it’s a power grab by unelected judges siding with the left’s agenda. Trump’s leadership is about results, not handouts, and this decision undermines that hard.

The ruling’s unbelievable, but Trump’s not done. He’ll keep pushing back against this nonsense, and conservatives know he’s got the grit to turn it around. The Biden crew would’ve rolled over; Trump won’t. This fight’s far from over, and Alito’s words are a wake-up call for anyone who values American priorities over foreign waste.

The Supreme Court’s ruling forcing President Trump to unfreeze $1.9 billion in USAID foreign aid payments is a gut punch to his agenda and a disgrace to common sense. Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent—backed by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh—nails it: no single district… pic.twitter.com/nhxqfUizN9

— Torsten Prochnow (@TorstenProchnow) March 5, 2025

Newsmax:

A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to let President Donald Trump’s administration withhold payment to foreign aid organizations for work they already performed for the government.

Handing a setback to Trump, the court in a 5-4 decision upheld Washington-based U.S. District Judge Amir Ali’s order that had called on the administration to promptly release funding to contractors and recipients of grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department for their past work.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the decision.

The order by Ali, who is presiding over an ongoing legal challenge to Trump’s policy, had originally given the administration until February 26 to disburse the funding, which it has said totaled nearly $2 billion that could take weeks to pay in full.

Chief Justice John Roberts paused that order hours before the midnight deadline to give the Supreme Court additional time to consider the administration’s more formal request to block Ali’s ruling. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices Trump appointed during his first presidential term.

Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said in a Supreme Court filing on March 3 that blocking Ali’s order “is warranted to prevent reinstatement of a new, short-fused deadline that would unlawfully commandeer federal payment processes anew.”

Harris argued that the judge’s order amounted to judicial overreach and had given the administration too little time to scrutinize the invoices “to ensure the legitimacy of all payments.” Lawyers representing the administration said in a separate February 26 filing that full payments could take weeks.

Trump, pursuing what he has called an “America First” agenda, ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid on his first day back in office on January 20. That order, and ensuing stop-work orders halting USAID operations around the world, have jeopardized delivery of life-saving food and medical aid, throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.

Aid organizations accused Trump in lawsuits of exceeding his authority under federal law and the U.S. Constitution by effectively dismantling an independent federal agency and canceling spending authorized by Congress.

Aid organizations said in a Supreme Court filing on February 28 that they “would face extraordinary and irreversible harm if the funding freeze continues,” as would their employees and those who depend on their work.

The organizations’ “work advances U.S. interests abroad and improves — and, in many cases, literally saves — the lives of millions of people across the globe. In doing so, it helps stop problems like disease and instability overseas before they reach our shores,” lawyers for the foreign aid groups wrote.

“The government’s actions have largely brought this work to a halt,” the lawyers wrote, adding that the Trump administration “comes to this court with an emergency of its own making.”

Among the plaintiffs in the litigation are the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, Journalism Development Network, international development company DAI Global and refugee assistance organization HIAS.

The Trump administration had kept the disputed payments largely frozen despite a temporary restraining order from Ali that they be released, and multiple subsequent orders that the administration comply. Ali’s February 25 enforcement order at issue before the Supreme Court applied to payment for work done by foreign aid groups before February 13, when the judge issued his temporary restraining order.

Ali, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, issued his temporary restraining order to prevent irreparable harm to the plaintiffs while he considers their claims.

Trump and his adviser Elon Musk have taken dramatic steps to reshape and shrink the federal government. They have dismantled some agencies, fired thousands of workers, dismissed or reassigned hundreds of officials, and removed the heads of independent agencies, among other actions.

As he moves to end American-backed humanitarian efforts in numerous countries, Trump’s administration has sent funding termination notices to key organizations in the global aid community. Global aid groups have said the U.S. retreat endangers the lives of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people including those facing deadly diseases and those living in conflict zones.