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What Next - Trump’s DIY Government Shutdown

What Next - Trump’s DIY Government Shutdown

How Donald Trump’s freeze on federal funding flies in the face of the constitutional separation of powers.

Slate Daily Feed · Slate

January 29, 202524m 11s

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Show Notes

Trump’s Office of Management and Budget sent a memo directing federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to … disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” which threw everything from Meals on Wheels to the rebuilding of a Rhode Island bridge into a state of confusion. 


What seems clear is that Congress has already stipulated how this money should be spent—and the president doesn’t have the power to change that.


For more on the legal mess that’ll follow this news, head over to the Amicus feed. Dahlia Lithwick just dropped an emergency episode.


Guest: Karen Tumulty, political columnist for The Washington Post.


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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.


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