Trump asks Supreme Court to step in and block billions in foreign aid spending
Source: CNN Politics
Updated Aug 26, 2025, 8:32 PM ET
PUBLISHED Aug 26, 2025, 8:31 PM ET
The Trump administration on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to step into an ongoing fight over billions of dollars in foreign aid that it says a lower court will force it to spend unless the justices intervene. The emergency appeal, which asks the high court to weigh in by next week, deals with an unusual procedural situation that the Department of Justice claims has threatened “irreparable diplomatic costs.”
Even though an appeals court sided with President Donald Trump earlier this month in the case, a lower court decision requiring the money to be spent remains in effect. Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, the administration said in its filing Tuesday, that lower court decision “will effectively force the government to rapidly obligate some $12 billion in foreign-aid funds,” overriding the Trump administration’s foreign-policy judgments.
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled earlier this month that only the legislative branch can sue an administration for making changes to congressionally approved spending – not the nonprofit groups that had sued over the drastic proposed cuts.
That decision overruled a lower court that had blocked the administration from moving forward with the cuts. But the case was appealed to the full DC Circuit, which is still considering it. In the meantime, lower courts have declined to halt the district court decision against Trump, which has effectively left it in place.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/26/politics/supreme-court-trump-foreign-aid-spending
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