Judge pauses Trump's plan to freeze federal grants and loans

A US judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's order to freeze billions of dollars in federal grants and loans, minutes before it was set to go into effect.

Judge Loren AliKhan's order to pause the plan until next Monday at 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT) came in response to a lawsuit filed earlier in the day by a group of organisations who represent grant recipients.

The lawsuit claims the White House's freezing of billions of dollars in already approved funding violates the law.

Much about the Trump order, which was to come into effect on Tuesday afternoon, and its scope remain unclear, sowing widespread confusion.

In a two-page memo the day before, the acting head of the White House budget office instructed agencies to "temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance".

Judge AliKhan on Tuesday said she was issuing a brief stay that would "preserve the status quo" until she can hold an oral argument, now set for Monday morning.

The White House directive could have impacted billions of dollars meant for federal programmes, from disaster relief to cancer research.

In a post on X, Diane Yentel, the president of the National Council of Nonprofits, the organisation that brought the lawsuit, celebrated the ruling.

"Our lawsuit was successful - the US district court is blocking OMB (Office of Management and Budget) from moving forward on its reckless plan to halt federal funding," she wrote.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the pause would allow governments to cut back spending for "woke" gender issues and diversity programmes.

Stephen Miller, the White House's deputy chief of staff, also defended the directive before the judge's decision was announced, telling reporters that a pause on federal funding would allow the government to get "credit control".

"It does not impact any federal programmes that Americans rely on," he said, answering a question about whether "Meals on Wheels" food delivery programme would be affected.

Democrats have expressed alarm about the pause and have argued it will have wide-reaching consequences.