'This idiot has only been in office for nine days': Budget measure rocks nation, Trump administration backpedals

Karoline Leavitt, porte-parole de la Maison Blanche, a elle assuré que le projet initial du président restait “totalement en vigueur”. Consolidated News Photos – Chris Kleponis – CNP

This Monday, January 27, a memo shared by the new American government put into effect the freezing of federal subsidies. Several NGOs quickly strongly denounced this initiative. This Wednesday, the White House announced that it was backpedaling on the decision, the confusion is at its peak.

The government of Donald Trump, which wants to tightly control the state apparatus, had to backtrack on a shock measure to freeze federal public aid, in great confusion.

The starting point is a memo published late Monday evening by the White House, asking federal departments and agencies to freeze part of the spending “assistance”– subsidies and allowances in particular – and to conduct an overall review to ensure their compliance with “presidential priorities”. This potentially involved hundreds, if not thousands of billions of dollars irrigating the entire country, and benefiting the elderly, poor families and veterans.

Read also: Donald Trump announces his intention to send up to 30,000 illegal migrants to the military prison at Guantanamo

The U.S. Executive Office of the Budget sent a notice to all federal departments and agencies saying that the initial memo was no longer valid. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the president’s original plan to cut off funding that didn’t meet his priorities remained “fully in effect.” She said the reversal of the Budget Office’s instructions Monday was intended to “clear up any confusion” that a federal judge ruled Tuesday. The Democratic opposition immediately seized on these multiple twists and turns.

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“Incompetence”

“Incompetence in full light”, denounced Democratic elected official Jasmine Crockett on X, adding: “It's only been nine days in office for this idiot who has already held the office for four years and still has no idea how government, the law or the Constitution works”. The measure on public aid had thus been suspended on Tuesday by a federal judge.

This is the first pitfall for Donald Trump, who since his inauguration on January 20 has been accumulating decrees and decisions at a dizzying pace, marked so far by an avalanche of decrees, many of which have been challenged in court, on the grounds that the Republican president was exceeding the powers conferred on him. The backtracking on the freeze on federal aid disrupts a day during which Donald Trump planned to solemnly ratify the first law passed since his inauguration, an anti-immigration text, and to issue new decrees, targeting in particular awareness of racism in schools and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

The Republican was due to sign the “Laken Riley” law, named after a 22-year-old nursing student, at 2:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. GMT). She was killed in February 2024 in Georgia (southeast) while she was out jogging in the morning by an illegal Venezuelan national. José Antonio Ibarra, 26, had been arrested before the murder for shoplifting. He has since been sentenced to life in prison without parole. The new law requires the automatic detention by federal law enforcement of illegal immigrants who have been convicted or charged with certain crimes – ranging from shoplifting to assaulting a police officer.

Immigration

This text, voted on by Congress only two days after the inauguration, is considered by the White House as emblematic of one of Donald Trump's major campaign promises, namely to end illegal immigration. Both houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans, but some Democratic elected officials have added their votes to the text. Laken Riley's name had become a rallying cry during the 78-year-old billionaire's campaign, which saw him use very violent rhetoric during his rallies, such as saying that the arrival of undocumented migrants was “poisoning the blood” of the United States.

According to his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, interviewed by Fox News, Donald Trump is also due to sign a text on Wednesday that will eliminate subsidies to schools teaching “critical race theory”. This concept, which originally refers to a current of research, is used pejoratively by conservatives to attack teachings that raise awareness of racism. The American press reports that the Republican will also issue a decree on Wednesday targeting students and foreign nationals who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.