Congress
Trump still wants a spending fight with Congress, even after memo debacle
The Trump administration has been spoiling for a legal fight over its power to ignore Congress’s spending laws since the president was last in office. But sending Washington into a tailspin over a poorly written memo was not part of the plan.
While the Trump administration intends to ax funding for initiatives it views as out of step with its priorities — like foreign aid, diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and environmental spending — it didn’t mean to blow up funding for a broader suite of programs as it did when the White House budget office on Monday released a memo that brought all federal financial assistance programs to a grinding halt, according to two senior administration officials, granted anonymity to speak about private conversations.
The memo appeared to be a brazen and sweeping attempt to challenge Congress’s power of the purse under a theory from Trump’s appointee for White House budget office director, Russell Vought, that the executive branch is not required to spend dollars that do not align with its goals.
And it was — the White House just didn’t intend for it to be quite so sweeping.
Trump’s inner circle was irked about the OMB memo, complaining Wednesday that it had not gone through the proper channels and wasn’t vetted. Its broad wording created a political and a legal problem — arousing anger and concern even from some Republican lawmakers worried their constituents would be hurt and putting the administration in a thorny legal position that has already resulted in one judge halting the spending freeze and a second poised to do the same.
“It was just poorly written from policy people, not comms people — and so people took that first line and ran with it, which was a ‘freeze of federal funding,’” said one of the senior administration officials, arguing that the memo should have been more narrow in scope.
The confusion ironically left conservatives long critical of safety net programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program scrambling to clarify that those dollars remained untouched.
The administration since tried to course correct by rescinding its first memo in an attempt to assuage some of the immediate panic and confusion.
But even without it, the president’s aggressively written executive orders that preceded the memo have created their own disruption — leaving billions of dollars of federal spending up in the air as agencies review whether they are complying with orders to gut Biden administration plans for the environment and other Democratic priorities, including many that were approved by Congress.
Clarity may only come once the courts weigh in. While legal experts believe the administration’s argument won’t hold up, Vought and others appear eager for a confrontation on the matter in court, perhaps anticipating that a conservative-dominated Supreme Court would rule in its favor.
The legal fights over the executive branch’s authority to withhold spending are already underway, particularly after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made clear that it was only the memo — not the federal funding freeze to these same programs — that had been rescinded.
For instance, federal funding remains on hold for environmental initiatives undertaken by past administrations, including the Inflation Reduction Act’s $7 billion Solar For All program and its National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, which was singled out in Trump’s executive order as an example of the spending he wanted to halt.
James Capretta, who was associate director of the White House’s budget office under former President George W. Bush, said the Trump administration’s “very expansive view of” what federal spending the executive branch can cancel or delay, actions known as impoundments, got mixed up in confusion over the memo.
“I think their intention was to do something pretty expansive — to halt new spending until the new people coming in have a chance to review what’s going on,” said Capretta, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “They just wrote it in way too expansive of a way, covering all kinds of things that are governed by laws that they have to change first if they want to change how the money is spent.”
“The impoundment issue is still there, but it’s going to be tested, I think, later when they’re ready,” Capretta added.
Trump’s White House is making no apologies for freezing congressionally allocated dollars that don’t align with his agenda — a chopping block that includes everything from infrastructure payments to diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government. And the administration is still furious with the media for stoking fear of broader cuts, something officials argue was never going to happen.
But officials also privately acknowledge that their OMB document was not ready for primetime — reminiscent, to some, of the slapdash early moves during his first term, when a ban on migrants from majority-Muslim countries and other orders were quickly halted following legal challenges — and overly broad.
“Everyone got freaked out and confused by the guidance memo,” the senior administration official said. “If you go back into the history of guidance memos, there are probably none that have warranted any coverage — let alone wall-to-wall coverage.”
Still, given the broad wording of many of Trump’s executive orders, federal agencies will almost certainly need more specific instructions from the White House budget office to translate the president’s broad policy statements into actions. At least one senior Trump official acknowledged Wednesday that rescinding the OMB memo would do little to resolve questions about what exactly is being cut, and that another memo will likely be needed.
Neither the White House nor a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget responded to a request for comment.
Inside the federal agencies affected by the confusing guidance from the White House, the chaos has not abated. Grantees, informed via email on Tuesday that all award recipients will temporarily be unable to receive new disbursements, remain in limbo. And even after subsequent guidance from some administrators that certain payments will still be available, many who oversee aid programs are proceeding with caution, not knowing what else may be in the offing.
“It’s a mess — no one knows what we are allowed to be doing and telling grantees,” said one official at the Department of Justice. “We have no clear and understandable guidance from leadership. Meetings are being cancelled left and right. We are trying to get back to the rhythm assuming the regular course of business is in place. But everyone is really cautious.”
Also thrown into chaos were the hundreds of clinics around the country that provide free and subsidized contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections and other services to millions of low-income people through the Title X family planning program. The clinics this week struggled to get answers to questions about the funding as Health and Human Services staff have been barred from communicating externally.
“People were trying to get in [to our government payment system] and nobody could get in, and they were getting different types of messages,” said Clare Coleman, the president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. “We didn’t know when that hold was going to be lifted.”
Though funding has resumed, Coleman warned that some clinics in the network receive no other source of funding, and would have to close if Title X is disrupted again. For now, many are pinching pennies so they have a cushion and are able to continue operating if that happens. Coleman fears, however, that many won’t be able to survive — particularly if Medicaid funding is frozen as well.
“I don’t care how many days of cash you have on hand, that’s existential,” she said.
Alice Miranda Ollstein contributed to this report.
SYRACUSE, New York — President Donald Trump came to New York on Friday to help a Republican win an uphill race for governor. But his visit was also a reminder of the complicated role he plays in his party’s fight to keep control of Congress.
Trump rallied alongside GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman, calling on New Yorkers to fire Gov. Kathy Hochul and, referring to the state attorney general, “her totally corrupt sidekick, Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James.”
“Your city and state are dirty, filthy places, and everybody wants to leave,” he told some 5,000 attendees at a convention center in downtown Syracuse — which, he noted, was “a short distance from the beautiful shores of Lake America.”
“You gotta get your act together, and I tell you what, Bruce Blakeman will get your act together,” Trump said.
For Republicans, the president’s appearance underscored a political dilemma that extends beyond New York: Even as Trump increasingly appears to be a drag on their ticket, they need his loyal supporters to energize their base. While voters have soured on the president’s handling of the economy and costs, he remains a potent force in turning out MAGA voters — even in an otherwise Democratic-dominated state.
“The targeting of where the president goes is not a random exercise,” Marist University pollster Lee Miringoff said. “They’re looking to stir the base without stirring the opposition. They’re picking and choosing, that’s not uncommon. For him to come to New York to help the turnout upstate is a positive for the Republicans and his base.”
Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, hasn’t distanced himself from the president — nor have most of the top officials in New York’s GOP. Nearly every Republican running a competitive congressional race in this half of the state came to Friday’s rally, eager to make their presence known.
“I’m always happy to be with the president,” said Anthony Constantino, who’s running in a nearby red district that’s inched into toss-up territory. “He’s the leader of the free world, and I’m excited to have a great relation with him.”
Some GOP operatives, however, have quietly grumbled that their candidates need to start creating some distance from the president. Republicans from other parts of the state like Rep. Mike Lawler decided that campaigning in their districts was more valuable than trekking to be seen with Trump — as did several down-ballot candidates in Central New York. Democrats, notably, have been just as eager to highlight the visit.
“This is supposed to be a swing district. And the feedback I get is that the president is very unpopular,” said Democratic Rep. John Mannion, who represents Syracuse and the surrounding Central New York area. “He still certainly will have his core base of supporters, but I do think he’s lost support here compared to what he had around the 2024 election.”
Blakeman, for his part, isn’t worried about Trump’s drop in popularity.
“Kathy Hochul should be worried about her drop in popularity,” he said before taking the stage in Syracuse. “She’s the most unpopular governor in the history of the state of New York.”
Trump’s visit came against the backdrop of a darkening political environment for New York Republicans.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot a man in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, stirring fresh condemnation of Trump’s aggressive deportation policies. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has a surprisingly warm relationship with the president, called on him to cease all ICE activity in the five boroughs. Hochul stressed that the shooting took place with a five-year-old child present and demanded that federal authorities “provide answers.”
Immigration is one of several areas where Blakeman has hewed close to the Trump wing of the party throughout his campaign.
“I’m outraged with Kathy Hochul for taking sides with somebody who was a convicted felon, someone who was an alleged drug dealer, a gang member,” he said Friday about the shooting in Manhattan.
While Trump’s speech repeatedly careened back to the rhetoric one could expect from any of his rallies — boasts about the stock market, complaints about ‘Dumocrats’ — he did manage to seamlessly blend almost all of Blakeman’s oft-used talking points into his stump speech.
“Since Hochul took office, she’s raised your utility rates 48 times, and energy prices in New York have skyrocketed 100 percent,” Trump said. “If Bruce Blakeman gets in, he will cut your electric bills by 70, 80, 90 percent.”
The climate outside of deep blue New York City is also turning increasingly hostile to the GOP. Constantino, who’s running to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik in upstate New York, trails his Democratic foe Blake Gendebien by 4 points, a Siena Research Institute survey released Friday morning found. A Blue Light News poll showed that nationally one in four Trump voters believe Republican candidates should break from the president in order to win in November.
The wisdom of appearing with Trump has been debated by Republicans throughout the country at a time when gas prices are high and a foreign war drags on. And New York Democrats aren’t viewing the presidential visit as a concern.
Much of Hochul’s messaging this year has focused on making sure New Yorkers know Blakeman and Trump are friends. Her most-aired TV commercial features a puppeteer saying one Republican would do the other’s bidding.
“Puppets are my life. You tell them what to say, they say it,” the narrator says. “But that’s not what you want in a governor.”
Earlier in the day during an MSNOW interview, Hochul dismissed the rally.
“It’s obviously a very political event,” she said. “It seems like a last-ditch effort to breathe some life into a campaign that’s on life support.”
Despite his low approval ratings with voters, Trump’s visit stands to light up a Republican base that Blakeman will need to turn out next month to help him defeat Hochul.
Polling has shown the governor leading the GOP nominee by as much as 18 points in this deep blue state. Yet some Trump supporters maintain the president can help generate much-needed enthusiasm for Blakeman, especially in areas of upstate New York where the Long Island native is not well known.
“We actually have the ability to win these elections, but I just don’t see the enthusiasm out there,” Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar said. “Hochul has won the day as far as being a terrible governor, but now we’ve got to get our people out to vote.”
Winning is still a tall order for Blakeman — especially in a tough national political environment where polls show GOP candidates in red states like Texas, Ohio and Kansas struggling against Democratic challengers.
Republicans have not won statewide in New York since George Pataki secured a third term in 2002. Since then, the GOP has lost all levers of statewide power, and Trump’s tariffs as well as his decision to launch a war in Iran have not helped him fulfill his campaign pledge of addressing voters’ cost concerns.
The president’s political woes aren’t going unnoticed.
Privately, Republican operatives grumbled that the president’s visit put swing seat candidates in an uncomfortable spot.
“There’s a lot of commiserating between folks within the party structure — why is this happening? Why is he doing this?” said one Republican operative who was granted anonymity to freely discuss the dynamic. “Then you’ve got the blind loyalists who say, ‘Yay Trump’s coming’ — people who are too politically dumb to understand the ramifications of it.”
Yet the head of the Republican party kept his message very much in line with Hochul’s.
“Please pretend I’m on the ballot,” Trump told Central New Yorkers.
Sen. Chris Murphy wants Democrats to go big for Angie Nixon in Florida’s Senate race — and he’s pushing to raise some “serious money” to help.
“I do believe that we’d make a big mistake if we slept on Florida,” the Connecticut Democrat told Blue Light News on Friday. “I know it feels like a longer shot, but I just think this year is looking exceptional.”
Murphy plans to hit the trail with Nixon as part of a campaign swing for Senate candidates over the next three weeks that will take him through North Carolina and Florida, as well as events with Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota and Chris Pappas in New Hampshire. Murphy will serve as a surrogate for El-Sayed in the spin room at his next debate, and said he’s “just a big believer” in the Michigan Senate nominee.
Murphy’s bullishness about a blue wave comes as Senate Democrats are pushing the boundaries of a midterm battle map that is shifting further into red territory. The Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC has dropped roughly $5 million apiece into Texas and Kansas over recent days, and the minority leader has included Kansas and Mississippi in his pitches to donors.
“If I were in charge, I would definitely put some resources in Florida,” Murphy said. “When you have an exciting candidate like this, it’s a good long-term investment” in growing Democrats’ activist base.
Still, Murphy stressed he’s “not making any formal recommendations” on where Schumer or top Democratic campaign groups should move their money.
“They’ve got so many mouths to feed,” Murphy said. “That’s why I’m going to try to step up and do some work on my own.”
Murphy, who is considered a potential 2028 presidential contender, has spread roughly $2.5 million across candidates, campaign arms and other organizations this cycle. That includes transferring more than $500,000 to Democrats’ three top campaign arms and 25 state parties.
Prominent Democrats have been ramping up their attention on Florida. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has funneled $250,000 toward Nixon’s campaign, along with other resources. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) also told Blue Light News he hopes to campaign with Nixon.
But Democrats across suddenly competitive red states are clamoring for more cash and Florida is an expensive state, complicating the chances of a significant investment from national groups.
Nixon also faces an uphill battle against GOP Sen. Ashley Moody in the Sunshine State. A progressive state lawmaker, Nixon aligned herself with the Democratic Socialists of America over the summer in a state where many voters, especially those with ties to Cuba, reject such an ideology. Also, Republicans in Florida have a 1.5 million voter registration advantage over Democrats.
Senate Democrats’ top super PAC is pushing into Kansas.
The Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC is launching a $5 million statewide television ad blitz starting Saturday through Election Day — the latest sign that Democrats believe the Senate map is shifting onto red turf.
SMP had signaled in recent days it could get involved in the race, telling Blue Light News late last month it was “actively thinking” about whether to wade into the state where Democrats haven’t won a Senate seat in nearly a century but where Adam Hamilton narrowly leads GOP Sen. Roger Marshall in recent polls. Internal SMP polling that found an increasingly competitive race factored into the group’s decision to spend. It will also run digital ads.
“The gap is closing in Kansas,” SMP spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring families understand Marshall’s real record of making health care and basic goods more expensive for working Kansans.”
Republicans are scrambling to shore up Marshall. Senate Leadership Fund, a top GOP super PAC aligned with Republican leadership, has booked over $10 million in ads through Election Day in the state, per ad tracking firm AdImpact.
SMP’s first ad attacks Marshall for joining Senate Republicans in voting to table a Democratic-led amendment last year to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. The Senate later approved legislation to release the files by unanimous consent. It’s the latest in a slate of ads from Democrats hitting their Republican rivals over the late, disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. Marshall’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Senate Democrats’ plunge into the state comes as the midterm battle map is undergoing a major realignment. Georgia and North Carolina — primed to be two of the cycle’s premiere battlegrounds — are tilting left to the point where national Republicans are retracting spending in both states and Democrats are starting to follow suit, freeing funds on both sides to shift elsewhere.
Republicans are racing to reinforce incumbents across what was once safer red turf. SLF has also pledged $5 million to bolster Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina.
Democrats, meanwhile, are starting to spend more in red states. SMP has dropped over $2 million on digital ads in Texas. Schumer, the Senate minority leader, has included Kansas and Mississippi in his pitches to donors.
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