Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
It was another wild day in Washington after President Donald Trump’s unexpected overnight move to pause federal aid spending. As Lawrence Hurley writes, it has sparked a constitutional battle that could end up at the Supreme Court. On immigration, Steve Kornacki digs into the poll numbers to show how Americans have shifted right on the issue since Trump’s first term. And Bridget Bowman breaks down a key early development in the 2026 battle for the Senate.
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— Adam Wollner
🚨 Breaking news: The Trump administration is set to offer all 2 million federal workers the chance to take “deferred resignations” with severance packages of roughly eight months of pay and benefits. Read more →
Trump’s effort to withhold federal funding triggers constitutional showdown
By Lawrence Hurley
The Trump administration’s attempt to withhold federal funding is fueling a long-brewing legal battle over the core constitutional principle that Congress gets to decide how to spend taxpayer money.
And as with President Donald Trump’s early executive order on birthright citizenship, the fight is leading to immediate litigation that could quickly end up at the Supreme Court.
A lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups has already led a federal judge to put Trump’s plan on hold.
Trump’s Office of Management and Budget sparked the showdown with a memo Monday night that ordered an immediate block on spending related to federal aid and programs.
The administration said the aim is to evaluate the programs to ensure they are aligned with Trump’s agenda, even though such funding was approved by Congress and signed into law. In a new memo OMB issued Tuesday, the administration said the order did not constitute a funding freeze and is not subject to the Impoundment Control Act.
The Constitution specifically states that Congress has the job of imposing taxes and spending money, giving it what is colloquially known as “the power of the purse.” It is the principal authority Congress has in showdowns over the separation of powers with the president.
“It seems clear to me that the Trump administration is aching to get this issue to the Supreme Court,” said Sam Bagenstos, who was the OMB general counsel in the Biden administration. “The Trump administration clearly thinks they have a favorable court.”
Chaos and confusion: The Trump administration’s move to abruptly halt federal grants and loans created widespread confusion across the government, Congress, state programs and nonprofit organizations that rely on that funding, Shannon Pettypiece, Julie Tsirkin, Garrett Haake and Berkeley Lovelace Jr. report.
- What would be affected? It’s not clear exactly which programs would be halted if the freeze went into effect. But OMB sent a document asking agencies for details about more than 2,600 programs, including school meals for low-income students, U.S. Agency for International Development foreign assistance, mine inspections, the WIC nutrition program for pregnant women and infants and a reintegration program for homeless veterans.
- White House tries to clarify: Funding for programs that provide direct assistance to people would be excluded from the pause and exempt from the review process, a senior administration official said. They include Medicaid, food stamps, small-business assistance, Head Start, rental assistance and federal Pell Grants for college students, according to a memo OMB sent out Tuesday afternoon.
- Medicaid issues: State agencies reported issues accessing federal funding sites and disbursement systems, including Medicaid systems, which are used to manage and distribute previously authorized federal funds. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House was aware of the Medicaid website outage and looking to fix it. (Read more about Leavitt’s first White House briefing here.)
How Americans’ views on immigration have shifted since Trump’s first term
By Steve Kornacki
Just like he did eight years ago, Donald Trump has come to the presidency with vows to take a hard line on immigration issues. But this time around, he’s doing it in a political atmosphere far more conducive to his posture.
Americans are now likelier to cite immigration as a top issue facing the country and are deeply supportive of efforts to deport immigrants who have committed crimes. While those attitudes do come with some nuance (opposition to policies that would separate families remains strong, for instance), the overall change is unmistakable.
For decades, the Gallup Poll has monitored public sentiment on immigration. Its most recent survey, taken last summer during the campaign, found that the share of Americans who want to curtail immigration has nearly doubled since Trump’s first term.