Trump Orders Sweeping Freeze for Federal Grants, Loans

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

82% : Trump pledged government support when he visited both places last week.
61% : Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, said Trump was simply following through on his campaign promises.
49% : That money plays an especially large role in low-income states such as Louisiana and Mississippi that voted for Trump by wide margins in the November election.
49% : But those figures appeared to include money authorized by Congress but not actually spent -- the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated government spending in 2024 at a much lower $6.75 trillion.
48% : "From pausing research on cures for childhood cancer to halting food assistance, safety from domestic violence, and closing suicide hotlines, the impact of even a short pause in funding could be devastating and cost lives," Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, said in a statement.
46% : As part of the foreign aid suspension, the administration began moving on Tuesday to stop the supply of lifesaving drugs for HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as medical supplies for newborn babies, in countries supported by the United States Agency for International Development.
40% : The U.S. Constitution gives Congress control over spending matters, but Trump said during his campaign that he believes the president has the power to withhold money if he disagrees.
37% : Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, has in a matter of days ordered a stop to virtually all domestic and foreign aid, after freezing U.S. assistance abroad last week.
35% : Trump's Republican allies have been pushing for dramatic spending cuts, though his vow to spare Social Security and Medicare puts roughly one-third of the budget off-limits.
35% : "It will mean missed payrolls and rent payments and everything in between: chaos for everything from universities to nonprofit charities, state disaster assistance, local law enforcement, aid to the elderly, and food for those in need," Schumer said in a post on X late on Monday.
33% : Trump also could not touch government interest payments, which accounted for another 11% of the budget last year, without triggering a default that would rock the world economy.
27% : During his first term, Trump sought to redirect spending to border enforcement, prompting a standoff with Congress that led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.