President Donald Trump is pushing Congress to slash billions more in foreign spending with the White House's latest rescissions package.

Trump notified Congress Thursday night of his proposed rescissions package, which is set to slash nearly $5 billion in foreign aid programs, Blaze News confirmed.

'Russ is now at the helm.'

The latest cuts include $3.2 billion in USAID funding, $322 million from the USAID-State Department Democracy Fund, $521 million of State Department contributions to other international organizations, $393 million in State Department contributions to peacekeeping activities, and another $445 million in peacekeeping aid.

"Since January, we’ve saved the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X.

Photo by Demetrius Freeman/Washington Post via Getty Images

"And with a small set of core programs moved over to the State Department, USAID is officially in closeout mode," Rubio added. "Russ is now at the helm to oversee the closeout of an agency that long ago went off the rails. Congrats, Russ."

Trump, alongside Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, got a $9 billion rescissions package passed through Congress back in July, which similarly cut back on foreign aid spending as well as funding for public broadcasting.

The Senate narrowly passed the rescissions package 51-48 after an overnight vote-a-rama on July 17. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine bucked their party and voted against the spending cuts.

The House promptly passed the cuts the following afternoon in a 216-213 vote. Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Turner of Ohio voted against the package.

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Congress now has 45 days to pass Trump's rescissions package. Notably, Congress will also be tasked with tackling the budget before the September 30 funding deadline. Despite the urgency, lawmakers have been out of town for August recess and are expected to come back into session starting September 2.

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Chinese researcher nabbed at Texas airport after allegedly stealing cancer-related data

While federal immigration officials work around the clock to deport foreigners out of the United States these days, some law enforcement agents in Texas are scrambling to keep one Chinese national here after he allegedly stole proprietary cancer research with plans to take it back to his homeland.

Yunhai Li, a post-doctoral researcher, joined the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston in 2022. According to KTRK, Li claimed in a signed legal statement that he had been working on a vaccine to keep breast cancer from metastasizing.

'There was a pretty good chance that he was going to get deported or leave the country, so we needed to file something.'

Li was in the U.S. on a research exchange scholar visa issued by the State Department. Moreover, much of his research was funded by federal entities like the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Health, and as a recipient of federal funding, Li signed documents promising to abide by confidentiality agreements and data storage and sharing restrictions, KTRK reported.

Toward the end of his research, Li uploaded about 90 GB of research data to his personal Google drive, his statement said, according to the outlet. After MD Anderson officials approached him about the uploaded data, he deleted it, offering proof that he had done so. However, according to KRIV, Li also allegedly uploaded the data to the Chinese server Baidu.

Li had also continued to receive funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and maintained his employment at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University during his time in America without disclosing that information to MD Anderson, documents said, according to KRIV. The forms Li signed to receive federal U.S. funding make plain that such conflicts of interest are forbidden.

FreshSplash/Getty Images

On July 1, Li resigned from MD Anderson. Eight days later, he attempted to board a plane at Bush Airport, headed for China.

While he was at the airport, federal agents with Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations examined his devices, where they discovered "unpublished research data and articles representing trade secrets, including material-restricted confidential research data, writings, drawings, and models," according to documents cited by KRIV.

According to reports, Li did not seem to deny the allegations. Instead, he reportedly indicated to investigators that he is entitled to the data he allegedly intended to exfiltrate to China.

That data "is a product of my efforts over the last three years. I believe I have a right to possess and retain this data," he wrote in the signed statement, according to KTRK. He also stated that he feared the data was "going to waste."

spawns/Getty Images

For now, Li reportedly faces state charges of theft of trade secrets and tampering with a government record, though federal prosecutors are looking into his case as well. If convicted on the charge of theft of trade secrets alone, he could spend up to 10 years behind bars and pay a fine of up to $10,000.

"There was a pretty good chance that he was going to get deported or leave the country, so we needed to file something," Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told KRIV. "We needed to make sure that he was going to stay here, the information was going to stay here, and he was going to be held accountable."

Li paid the $5,100 bail and bonded out of custody on Monday. He had to surrender his passport as a condition of his release.

Li's attorney did not respond to a request for comment from KRIV.

'We are constantly working to find ways to improve our screening and vetting processes.'

Li is not the only Chinese former MD Anderson researcher accused of attempting to steal sensitive data. Back in 2019, the hospital fired three Chinese employees on suspicion that they had attempted a similar data heist, KRIV reported.

With such a troubling track record regarding Chinese researchers, Blaze News wanted to know what steps MD Anderson has taken recently to vet foreign applicants more thoroughly and prevent similar problems in the future.

The hospital did not respond to our questions about vetting or whether any patient data had been compromised in connection with these cases, but it did provide the following statement: "As of July 1, 2025, Yunhai Li is no longer employed by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Institutional leaders are working with relevant authorities on this matter."

A spokesperson for the State Department declined to comment on any particular case, but did suggest that under the Trump administration, visa applicants would "be screened and vetted to the maximum extent possible to ensure they will respect the terms of their admission to the United States."

"The Trump administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process," the spokesperson told Blaze News.

"We are constantly working to find ways to improve our screening and vetting processes and to support legitimate travel to the United States while protecting U.S. citizens."

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Barricades, bureaucrats, and opium: Darren Beattie reveals to Glenn Beck what deep-staters tried to pull at USIP

The U.S. Institute of Peace acting president Dr. Darren Beattie told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on Tuesday about the melee that took place at his agency's headquarters during its takeover by the Department of Government Efficiency in March.

Beattie, who is also undersecretary for public diplomacy at the State Department, revealed both the lengths that deep-staters went to cover their tracks as well as what illicit trade the agency apparently had an interest in propping up in Afghanistan.

The USIP is a taxpayer-funded think tank established by Congress in 1984 that had a budget last year of $55 million. The Heritage Foundation noted in a 2024 report that the agency lacked transparency and mechanisms to ensure fiscal accountability; was full of partisans; and had greatly overstepped the bounds of its original mission.

Beattie told Beck that the USIP is an "important member of the NGO archipelago," whose quasi-governmental, quasi-private "chameleon character" helps America's foreign policy establishment "fulfill some of those more sensitive functions that had been exposed in the course of the Church [Committee] hearings" regarding misconduct by American intelligence agencies, including the CIA.

Pursuant to President Donald Trump's Feb. 19 executive order concerning the "reduction of the federal bureaucracy," the DOGE set to work earlier this year on eliminating bloat and inefficiencies at the USIP.

The Trump administration fired the voting members of the agency's board of directors along with the USIP's president, former Clinton official George Moose; terminated nearly all of the institute's staff and activities around the world; had elements of the DOGE take over the institute's headquarters; and transferred USIP's property to the General Services Administration.

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Deep-staters apparently desperate to cling to power at the agency tried to fight this house-cleaning, not only filing legal challenges but getting physical.

After DOGE member Kenneth Jackson was temporarily made acting president of the agency, Trump's efficiency team attempted to enter the USIP's headquarters. However, Moose and agency staffers repeatedly barred their entry.

Finally, on March 17, the DOGE managed to enter with the help of law enforcement.

In response to Moose's claim that the "DOGE has broken into our building," the DOGE responded:

Mr. Moose denied lawful access to Kenneth Jackson, the Acting USIP President (as approved by the USIP Board). @DCPoliceDept arrived onsite and escorted Mr. Jackson into the building. The only unlawful individual was Mr. Moose, who refused to comply, and even tried to fire USIP’s private security team when said security team went to give access to Mr. Jackson.

Beattie told Beck that during the DOGE takeover of the agency, USIP staffers "barricaded themselves in the offices. They sabotaged the physical infrastructure of the building. There were reports of there being loaded guns within the offices."

"There was one hostage situation where they held a security guard under basically kind of a false-imprisonment type of situation," continued Beattie. "It was extremely intense. Far more so than the better-known story of USAID."

'I think even more bizarre than having this former Taliban guy on the payroll is the kind of schizophrenic posture in relation to Afghanistan exhibited by the US Institute of Peace.'

Beattie noted further that "in the course of all of that, they tried to delete terabyte of data — of accounting information that would indicate what kind of stuff they were up to, what kind of people they were paying."

After the DOGE secured the headquarters, former Trump adviser and DOGE head Elon Musk indicated that the DOGE recovered the terabyte of financial data that USIP staffers allegedly deleted to "cover their crimes."

Taliban extremists in Kabul. Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images

The DOGE not only exposed significant waste and alleged fraud but questionable contracts, including a $132,000 contract with a former Taliban official, Mohammad Qasem Halimi, who served as the extremist regime's chief of protocol, then later as a "fixer type" in Afghanistan.

"What the heck is an organization like this doing having an individual who is a former Taliban member on their payroll?" Beattie said to Beck.

Beattie suggested ProPublica's recent attempt to paint Halimi as a victim of the DOGE was a "total joke," stressing that "he was probably one of these people who was playing all sides, made a lot of enemies."

— (@)

"I think even more bizarre than having this former Taliban guy on the payroll is the kind of schizophrenic posture in relation to Afghanistan exhibited by the U.S. Institute of Peace," continued Beattie.

The USIP's acting president suggested that his supposedly peace-focused agency was apparently interested in keeping Afghanistan's opium trade alive and well.

"One truly bizarre thing is that one of the U.S. Institute of Peace's main kind of policy agendas was basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade had dissipated under Taliban leadership," said Beattie. "They had multiple reports coming out, basically saying, 'This is horrible that the opium trade is diminished under the Taliban. We need to find some way to restore it.' How bizarre is that?!"

"The whole story of opium and Afghanistan and its connection to government entities is a very intricate and delicate and fascinating one. But it seems very clear that the U.S. Institute of Peace was involved in that story to some degree," added Beattie.

Beck noted that "this is the real deep-state stuff that I think bothers people so much. Look, we expect our CIA to do stuff — we don't necessarily want it to do it, but we expect it. But when it's in the State Department, when it's in every department ... pushing money to NGOs to overthrow governments, it's out of control."

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America First foreign policy gets an Office of Natural Rights

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio executed a sweeping restructuring plan to implement an America First foreign policy in the State Department. Although many offices were either eliminated or combined, a few new ones were created. Among them is the Office of Natural Rights.

The very name has drawn the usual harrumphing from establishment voices who insist that “human rights” is the only proper diplomatic term. While human rights terminology is significant, the State Department has long been blind to an even more critical truth behind such language: Without human nature, human rights don’t exist.

Without reference to the inherent limitations of our shared human nature, the argument over rights becomes a mere yelling match.

If our rights are not grounded in a shared nature, they are founded simply on the will of the government. If the government grants us rights at one particular moment, it may arbitrarily retract them at the next.

The Trump administration has observed this phenomenon with great alarm. Vice President JD Vance argued that this is Europe’s greatest threat in his now-famous Munich speech, and the State Department weighed in with an official article shortly thereafter.

U.S. officials are rightly concerned about natural rights abroad — not because they are Republicans, but rather because they are Americans. The recognition of natural rights is the foundation of our own government.

Conflicting rights

Our founding fathers pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to uphold the truth that “all men are created equal” and are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” Today, the founders’ fledgling nation is the oldest constitutional republic on earth and the foundation of a peaceful and prosperous world order. While conflict has not been eradicated — and never will be — America stands as a beacon of liberty due to our status as a natural-rights republic.

A right is a powerful thing. It is an absolute claim that cannot be questioned or curtailed except in the most dire and limited circumstances. Any law that denies a natural right is unjust on its face. Politicians who threaten natural rights threaten society itself.

Nonetheless, over the last several decades, the concept of rights has become untethered from its grounding in human nature, leading to an inflationary crisis of rights. Today, we suffer from violent clashes over the pecking order of a multitude of conflicting rights people claim for themselves — often at the expense of others.

Without reference to the inherent limitations of our shared human nature, the argument over rights becomes a mere yelling match, devoid of moral content and determined by sheer power. That is why the fiercest proponents of novel rights always impose them on society through force, such as angry protests and public shaming rather than true debate.

Such imposition poses a threat to the free exercise of genuine rights in our societies. True natural rights are, like the rest of nature, ordered and mutually compatible. They rarely conflict and do so only at the margins. The introduction of so-called human rights destroys that balance and often pits new “rights” directly against the old.

Free speech in particular has been trampled in many countries in order to make room for an oppressive and dictatorial version of “tolerance.” Just ask the 12,000 Brits imprisoned for “hate speech” every year. Foundational rights to person, property, and self-defense are likewise under threat from diversity, equity, and inclusion fanatics who are eager to enact judgment on the basis of race rather than character.

Rooting out imposters

We urgently need to distinguish between true natural rights and the imposter rights pushed on us by fractious groups pursuing their own ends. The following three criteria can help distinguish genuine rights from modern imposters: functional universality, necessity by nature, and corresponding duty.

First, functional universality means that the right can be secured without vast government interference. Free speech is universally attainable; free college less so.

Second, necessity by nature means all people must be free to do what nature has designed them for: working to provide for themselves and their children and associating freely with others for the purpose of mutual support, inquiry, and worship. Though just government is built on the recognition of man’s nature, it cannot promise to all what cannot be practically provided to all.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Finally, all authentic rights have corresponding duties. The right to private property implies the duty to respect others’ property as well. Any right with no corresponding duty is just a handout by a different name.

By applying these and similar criteria, the Office of Natural Rights will bring crucial clarity to our foreign policy and end the tyranny of special interests masquerading as human rights. So-called rights that do not fit this framework might involve good and desirable ends for individuals and society — but they cannot be allowed to claim the mantle and privileges of a natural right.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published at the American Mind.

Trump admin to vet all visa holders — revoke and deport threats to America

President Donald Trump's administration is strengthening its vetting of foreign nationals in the United States.

On Thursday, the State Department announced plans to review all of the more than 55 million current visa holders. Those individuals are subject to "continuous vetting" to ensure that they are permitted to be in the U.S., the department told the Associated Press.

'[A quarter] of the country is foreign but the corporate class says we still need more.'

The audit will include looking for indicators of potential ineligibility, including overstays, criminal activity, public safety threats, and ties to terrorist activity. In the event the State Department determines an individual is ineligible, their visa will be revoked, and if they are currently in the U.S., they could be subject to deportation.

"We review all available information as part of our vetting, including law enforcement or immigration records or any other information that comes to light after visa issuance indicating a potential ineligibility," the department stated.

The State Department has already revoked "more than twice as many visas, including nearly four times as many student visas, as during the same time period last year," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

"There is no national sovereignty in a country with 55 million people on visas and another 50 million illegals without them. Our entire system is a joke," BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre wrote in a post on social media.

William Wolfe, the executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, responded to MacIntyre, stating, "100 million must go back."

Since the 1970s, the U.S. has "on a roughly one-to-one ratio, traded an aborted American citizen baby for an imported foreigner," Wolfe noted.

Charlie Kirk, founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, stated, "55 million legal. 20 million illegal. [A quarter] of the country is foreign but the corporate class says we still need more. Their 'need' will never be satisfied. They must be completely ignored and never taken seriously again."

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The same day that the State Department announced its plans to review all visa holders, Secretary Marco Rubio declared an immediate pause on "all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers."

"The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers," Rubio stated.

His announcement came after a crash in Florida last week involving an illegal alien truck driver. The driver made an illegal U-turn, which caused the trailer to jackknife and crush a minivan, resulting in the death of all three passengers inside.

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Rubio takes action to prevent more foreigners from 'endangering American lives' with big rigs

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday that his department was immediately pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers.

"The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers," wrote Rubio.

Concerns over foreigners driving big rigs on American roads came to a head on Saturday after Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old illegal alien from India, allegedly killed three people on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce while driving a tractor-trailer.

According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, "It is evident that the driver of the commercial semi-truck recklessly, and without regard for the safety of others, attempted to execute a U-turn utilizing an unauthorized location. As a result of his actions, the three occupants of the minivan are now deceased."

Singh, who has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide, reportedly stole into the country in 2018 and, despite getting fast-tracked for deportation by the first Trump administration, managed to stick around.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced on Tuesday that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration launched an investigation into the crash.

Image source: St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office

The U.S. Department of Transportation has confirmed that Singh was granted a regular full-term commercial driver's license in Washington State on July 15, 2023. Almost exactly a year later, Singh was issued a limited-term/non-domiciled commercial driver's license in Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom's California.

While Singh was issued a speeding ticket by New Mexico State Police in July, the DOT indicated that there is no indication that an English language proficiency assessment was conducted, despite the requirement being in effect since June 25.

During his post-crash Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration interview, Singh flunked the ELP assessment, providing correct responses to only two of 12 verbal questions and only accurately identifying one of 4 highway traffic signs.

"If states had followed the rules, this driver would never have been behind the wheel and three precious lives would still be with us," said Duffy. "This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures. Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles."

'The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads raises serious concerns for public safety.'

The transportation secretary vowed to use every tool at his disposal to hold the offending states and bad actors accountable, stressing that "the families of the deceased deserve justice."

A DOT spokesperson confirmed in a statement to Blaze News that Duffy's department has combined efforts with its partners in the Departments of Homeland Security and State Department "to keep our roads safe."

"This administration is pulling every lever to deliver on President Trump’s promise to keep the American people safe and restore common sense in our country," said the DOT spokesperson. "Foreign drivers must be able to comply with American rules on American roads. That’s common sense."

While America's roads fall under Duffy's purview, Rubio has the ability to prevent foreign nationals from coming to the U.S. for the purpose of driving big rigs.

A State Department spokesperson told Blaze News that "detecting and preventing entry of individuals who pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety is critical to protecting Americans in our homeland."

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images

"The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads raises serious concerns for public safety and threatens the livelihoods of American truckers," continued the spokesperson. "We are taking this action to protect American lives and safeguard U.S. national security and foreign policy interests."

With the safety of American citizens in mind, the State Department will not — for the foreseeable future — process work visas for applicants who seek to operate commercial trucks in the U.S. This pause will afford the Departments of State, Labor, and Homeland Security time to consider and make necessary updates to their relevant screening and vetting protocols.

The pause in visa processing applies to applicants of all nationalities who seek to operate commercial trucks in the H-2B, E-2, and EB-3 visa classifications.

Applicants who do not presently hold valid visas will undergo thorough vetting. Those who fail to make the cut will have their petitions returned to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or be denied a visa.

"The Department will take all necessary steps to protect public safety, including on America’s roads," said the State Department spokesperson.

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Senate Needs To Confirm Religious Freedom Ambassador Before More Christians Are Tortured Abroad

While the mainstream media barely covers these events, it’s clear that many Americans want the U.S. to do more to stop the persecution of Christians.

Rubio’s warning to UK: Persecuting Christians for prayer is an ‘egregious violation’ of free speech, religious liberty

Marco Rubio's State Department is standing up for free speech in the United Kingdom after the arrests of Christians participating in silent prayer.

Individuals in the U.K. can face unlimited fines for protesting or silently praying within 150 meters, just under 500 feet, of an abortion clinic. The buffer zones were introduced last year.

'The US State Department is right to call out this injustice.'

Livia Tossici-Bolt, a 64-year-old retired medical scientist, was convicted in April for holding a sign reading, "Here to talk, if you want to," near a facility offering abortion services. She was sentenced to a conditional discharge and fined £20,000.

Adam Smith-Connor, a veteran of the British Army Reserves, was fined £9,000 last year for silently praying near an abortion clinic.

Rose Docherty, a 75-year-old grandmother, was arrested in Scotland in February for holding a sign that read, "Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want." The case against her was dropped last week.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce is under investigation for silently praying near a Birmingham abortion facility.

Livia Tossici-Bolt. Photo by Peter Nicholls/Getty Images

The Trump administration has been monitoring Tossici-Bolt's case and warns that individuals' fundamental rights are at risk in the U.K.

During the Munich Security Conference in February, Vice President JD Vance accused European leaders of engaging in censorship. He later confronted U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer about this issue during a meeting at the Oval Office.

“We do have, of course, a special relationship with our friends in the U.K. and also with some of our European allies,” Vance told reporters. “But we also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British — of course, what the British do in their own country is up to them — but also American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens. So that is something we’ll talk about today at lunch.”

Starmer responded to Vance’s comments, stating, “Well, we’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom, and it will last for a very, very long time.”

The State Department's 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released earlier this month, stated that "the human rights situation worsened in the United Kingdom during the year."

"Significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism," the report read.

The State Department issued a warning to the U.K. this week about its buffer zone policies.

Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

A spokesperson for the State Department told the Telegraph, "The U.K.'s persecution of silent prayer represents not only an egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech and religious liberty, but also a concerning departure from the shared values that ought to underpin U.S.-U.K. relations."

"It is common sense that standing silently and offering consensual conversation does not constitute harm."

The spokesperson noted that the administration continues to monitor U.K. cases and "other acts of censorship throughout Europe."

The U.K. has rejected the Trump administration's claims that the buffer zone policies violate fundamental freedoms.

"Free speech is vital for democracy, including here in the UK, and we are proud to uphold freedoms while keeping citizens safe," a government official told the Telegraph.

Lorcan Price, Irish barrister and legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom International, stated, "The U.K.'s treatment of individuals like Livia, Adam, Isabel, and Rose for the false 'crimes' of praying silently or offering conversation shows just how far the country has strayed from its own proud traditions of liberty. The U.S. State Department is right to call out this injustice. It is time for the U.K. government to restore fundamental freedoms and repeal buffer zone legislation."

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Appeals court delivers Trump big win, throwing out Biden judge's ruling on foreign aid

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia tossed out the February order of a Biden-appointed district judge on Wednesday and delivered the Trump administration a big win.

How it started

President Donald Trump ordered a pause in foreign aid on his first day back in office, eliciting backlash from beneficiaries abroad and vested interests at home.

Trump, convinced that the U.S. "foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values," ordered a 90-day pause in foreign aid, affording his administration an opportunity to review relevant programs "for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy."

'The grantees failed to show they are likely to succeed on the merits.'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio subsequently suspended new funding obligations for the State Department; terminated thousands of grant awards; and shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Grantees of foreign-assistance funds promptly sued to get their hands on nearly $4 billion for global health programs and over $6 billion for AIDS programs that had been appropriated by Congress to be disbursed by the State Department and USAID.

Foreign-born U.S. District Judge Amir Ali helped them in February to keep the gravy train moving.

Ali, a Biden appointee, issued a universal injunction — the kind the U.S. Supreme Court determined on June 27 "likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts" — that barred the Trump administration from "suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing the obligation or disbursement of appropriated foreign-assistance funds in connection with any contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, loans, or other federal foreign assistance award that was in existence as of January 19, 2025."

How it's going

In a 2-1 decision on Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia did what the Supreme Court refused to do in March: vacate Ali's order.

The majority on the panel — comprising a George H.W. Bush appointee and a Trump appointee — concluded that "the district court abused its discretion in granting a preliminary injunction because the grantees failed to show they are likely to succeed on the merits."

The majority also determined that "the grantees lack a cause of action to bring their freestanding constitutional claim" and "have no cause of action to undergird their [Administrative Procedure Act] contrary-to-law claim."

'We will continue to successfully protect core Presidential authorities from judicial overreach.'

In her dissenting opinion, Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee and daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, accused her colleagues of reframing the case to help the government.

"The majority concludes that the grantees lack a constitutional cause of action — an issue that the government did not mention in its opening brief and did not fully develop even in its reply brief," wrote Pan.

The Biden-appointed judge wrote that the government instead argued that the grantees lack a statutory cause of action to force President Donald Trump to obligate the funds in question.

Pan also suggested that the majority opinion "misconstrues the separation-of-powers claim brought by the grantees, misapplies precedent, and allows Executive Branch officials to evade judicial review of constitutionally impermissible actions."

Blaze News has reached out to the State Department for comment.

Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the victory, noting, "In a 2-1 ruling, the DC Circuit lifted an injunction ordering President Trump to spend hard-earned taxpayer dollars on wasteful foreign aid projects. We will continue to successfully protect core Presidential authorities from judicial overreach."

"Today’s decision is a significant setback for the rule of law and risks further erosion of basic separation-of-powers principles," stated Lauren Bateman, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group who represented some of the grantees. "We will seek further review from the court, and our lawsuit will continue regardless as we seek permanent relief from the administration’s unlawful termination of the vast majority of foreign assistance."

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Trump moves to claw back billions more from USAID, foreign aid

Chinese researcher nabbed at Texas airport after allegedly stealing cancer-related data

Barricades, bureaucrats, and opium: Darren Beattie reveals to Glenn Beck what deep-staters tried to pull at USIP

America First foreign policy gets an Office of Natural Rights

Conflicting rights

Rooting out imposters

Trump admin to vet all visa holders — revoke and deport threats to America

Rubio takes action to prevent more foreigners from 'endangering American lives' with big rigs

Senate Needs To Confirm Religious Freedom Ambassador Before More Christians Are Tortured Abroad

Controversial Pulitzer Prize Winner Set To Appear at Detroit Conference Alongside Terrorists

Rubio’s warning to UK: Persecuting Christians for prayer is an ‘egregious violation’ of free speech, religious liberty

Appeals court delivers Trump big win, throwing out Biden judge's ruling on foreign aid

How it started

How it's going

Elon Musk-endorsed Harvard philosopher delivers powerful take on healing America’s political divide

Charlie Kirk’s murder wasn’t just an attack on him — it was an attack on us all

The decline of customer service — and why it matters

Accountability is the best way to honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy

Man admits to raping girl thousands of times and impregnating her — he has agreed to unbelievable plea deal

Conflicting rights

Rooting out imposters

How it started

How it's going

We’ll keep you informed with top stories for conservatives who want to become informed decision makers.