BREAKING: Supreme Court Grants Trump Administration Appeal on Foreign Aid Order

This just in: the Supreme Court has just sided with the Trump administration after a federal judge ordered them to pay out billions in foreign aid by midnight tonight.

Chief Justice John Roberts has put a temporary halt on the order from a lower court. The pause will last until the Supreme Court decides whether or not to completely overrule U.S. District Judge Amir Ali’s original ruling.

This comes after the Trump administration filed an appeal against the order.

Check out the breaking news:

🚨BREAKING: The Supreme Court Temporarily halts the order requiring the Trump Administration to release BILLIONS in foreign aid. pic.twitter.com/DMn370tgoO

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 27, 2025

🚨 #BREAKING: SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH TRUMP – Temporarily BLOCKS lower court order, which attempted to force Trump to give BILLIONS to foreign aid

BIG WIN! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Pj9mXWDE5b

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 27, 2025

SCOTUS steps in to temporarily stop the ridiculous lower court ruling telling the Trump administration to send out foreign aid money. pic.twitter.com/6jnp8JFxTX

— john jackson (@pvtjokerus) February 27, 2025

CBS News reported:

Chief Justice John Roberts late Wednesday granted the Trump administration’s request to put on hold a lower court order that required it to pay an estimated $2 billion in foreign assistance funds for State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development projects by midnight Wednesday.

Roberts, who oversees requests for emergency relief arising from cases in the District of Columbia, acted alone in halting the decision from a federal district judge issued Tuesday. The judge, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, gave the State Department and USAID until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday to pay its bills to contractors for work that had been completed before Feb. 13. The Trump administration had earlier in the night asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the dispute involving frozen foreign assistance funds.

Roberts gave the State Department and USAID contractors until noon Friday to respond to the Trump administration’s request.

In its bid for emergency relief from the Supreme Court, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said that Ali’s order covers an estimated $2 billion and said his Wednesday night deadline “moved the goalposts.”

“It is not tailored to any actual payment deadlines associated with respondents’ invoices or drawn-down requests, or anyone else’s. And it has thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos,” she wrote.

Harris said that officials at the “highest levels of government” are involved in the matter and told the Supreme Court that the Trump administration is “undertaking substantial efforts to review payment requests and release payments.”

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The Hill added:

Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily delayed a midnight deadline for the Trump administration to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid payments, imposed by a lower judge who found the administration had flouted his ruling.

The administration said it could not feasibly resume payments on the rapid timeline set by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, who on Tuesday directed the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to resume funding for foreign aid contracts and grants by the end of Wednesday.

“This new order requiring payment of enormous sums of foreign-assistance money in less than 36 hours intrudes on the prerogatives of the Executive Branch. The President’s power is at its apex—and the power of the judiciary is at its nadir—in matters of foreign affairs,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the emergency motion to the high court.

By default, the request went to Roberts, who handles emergency appeals arising from the nation’s capital. His pause lasts until the court decides whether to wipe Ali’s ruling, which Roberts could decide himself or refer to full court for a vote.

Roberts ordered the plaintiffs to respond in court filings by mid-day Friday.

But for now, Roberts’s decision means the administration does not have to release the funding by midnight, handing Trump a temporary win in his broader effort to dismantle USAID.