President Donald Trump had the presidential and legal authority to terminate billions of taxpayer dollars to the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) and its countless overseas pet projects, the Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed this week.
Ever since Trump issued his day-one executive order effectively freezing USAID’s wasting of Americans’ hard-earned dollars, judges have encroached on his presidential authority by hampering his power to impound, or “decline to spend the full amount of an appropriated fund.”
In its 2-1 ruling published on Wednesday, the D.C. Circuit Court not only reversed those attempts, but also paved the way to limit the number of lawsuits and subsequent injunctions designed to keep Trump from doing his job by curbing American subsidization of covert programs like Iraqi “Sesame Street,” LGBT initiatives abroad, and even meals for terrorists.
Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, joined by Judge Gregory Katsas, noted that a band of USAID beneficiaries sued to stop the cessation of their federal funding and keep their secret slush funds. Yet she concluded the district court “erred in granting that relief because the grantees lack a cause of action to press their claims.”
“They may not bring a freestanding constitutional claim if the underlying alleged violation and claimed authority are statutory,” Henderson continued.
She also affirmed that Trump’s executive order was valid due to “the President’s authority under ‘the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America.’”
Henderson additionally rejected the dissent’s complaint that the Circuit Court’s ruling will “insulate large swaths of presidential action from judicial review.”
“We simply hold that such claims must meet the standards governing review of ultra vires claims, and cannot be recast as constitutional claims through the mere invocation of the separation of powers,” she wrote in a footnote.
The D.C. Circuit Court’s ruling proves to be yet another big win for Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency, who have faced an uphill battle against rogue judges telling the federal government how to use its money. The judicial coup against the Republican administration previously took a blow when Judge Carl Nichols declined to issue a preliminary injunction in February, allowing the Trump team’s USAID employee termination plans to continue.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.
