US Supreme Court sides with Trump on freezing $4bn in foreign aid

President Donald Trump has once more sided with him by preventing the release of $4 billion in foreign aid.

The Trump administration’s latest success in its efforts to reform the funding the US gives to humanitarian and other efforts abroad is the ruling from Friday that reverses a lower court’s order.

Additionally, it is the most recent instance of the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court granting a broad definition of presidential authority.

The Congress had already approved the aid, but it was scheduled to expire on September 30. Trump attempted to “pocket rescission,” which would mean turning the clock back on how much time was being used, by attempting to freeze the aid.

The funds had been set aside for UN peacekeeping missions and efforts to promote democracy overseas in part.

Trump was given the deadline of September 3 to send the funds to the US District Judge Amir Ali. He warned that Trump’s action “presented a serious and urgent threat to the separation of powers.”

There is little precedent for a president to recoup funds that the legislative branch has already approved, given that Congress has the power of the purse under the US Constitution. The “pocket rescission” tactic was last employed in 1977, according to the White House.

Administration attorneys argued in court filings that the funding’s distribution would be “contrary to US foreign policy.”

Trump has attempted to reform US foreign aid, slashing UN funding, and largely destroying the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The administration has argued that the spending cuts are intended to cut costs while slashing domestic immigration enforcement funding.

Critics claim that the cuts threaten the US’s long-term interests and undermine Washington’s soft power abroad.