[Donald Trump’s move to pause trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans awakened widespread Democratic resistance to the new president’s second term that was felt Tuesday on Capitol Hill, in governors’ offices and in the race to helm the party’s national committee.
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked part of the White House budget office’s Monday night order to freeze federal aid – but only with a temporary order in place until February 3. The reach of the administration’s order created immediate confusion and Trump’s administration spent the day trying to tamp down fears that the temporary freeze applied to public benefit programs like Medicaid, even while states’ federal funding portals stopped working on Tuesday.
But the Trump budget office’s move lit a spark under Democratic officials in a way other moves of his first week back in office had not, even leading some Democrats to change the way they were voting on the president’s Cabinet nominees.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has sought to position himself as a progressive firewall against Trump in his blue state and is widely seen as one of a long list of Democrats who could seek the presidency in 2028, cast doubt on the Medicaid outage being incidental, and said federal agencies had canceled meetings scheduled for this week with state officials.
“What the president is trying to do is illegal,” Pritzker said, vowing to fight the White House in court. “The Trump administration is trying to confuse the American people. That’s why it’s so important that we speak plainly.”
The Democratic pushback comes as party leaders and lawmakers look for answers on how to take on Trump as his second administration tries to implement sweeping change to government through executive actions and on Capitol Hill, where Republicans control both the House and the Senate.
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