6mo ago

White House rescinds Trump's funding freeze after massive backlash

www.axios.com

Just a moment...

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rescinded a memo Wednesday that had ordered a "temporary pause" on federal funding and unleashed major confusion across the country.

Why it matters: It's an astonishing reversal by the Trump administration, a day after top officials defended the funding freeze — which a judge temporarily halted on Tuesday — as necessary to ensure all government spending was aligned with the president's vision.

57 comments

Probably helps that Dems yesterday in an Iowa special just flipped a state senate district. That district voted for Trump by a 21% margin in 2024. A dem just won it by ~3-4%
There also was an overperformed by 14 points in a Minnesota special election (getting 90% of the vote) yesterday too
His horrible actions have fired people up
- I just wish him telling the world what he was going to do would have fired people up in November.
  
  People were really fired up for the generic democrat against Trump. People were not fired up for the geriatric democrat that actually was running.
- His horrible actions have fired people up
  I like how Americans can only get fired up while actively being abused. Once the abuse wears off we just re-elect our abusers.
  So, assuming we're allowed to vote in 4 years, we'll probably put a Democrat in office, only to put our abusers back in 4 years later.
- I highly doubt those had any affect on the decision whatsoever.
  The Trump administration is not the type to rapidly reverse course just because of outrage. It depends on outrage. Whatever spurred this is part of a larger play.
  You can find optimistic lessons in those elections, but the White House is on its own shit now.
  
  Trump himself wouldn't care, but other Republicans sure as hell would. They can certainly increase pressure after things like that
  
  Almost certainly Republicans of power (money or political) didn't like the order, because it would have economic impacts for them or their constituents. It was an insane order that would have harmed everyone everywhere. Those are the only people that matter to him.
- Let’s keep that same energy for the midterms
  
  There was similar energy in the mid terms after RvW was overturned, but it seemed to have dried up by the time of the election. I'm always hopeful, but it's not a bet I would take.
- I sure as hell hope so. I get people have things going on, but not voting is just letting us get fucked.
"This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo."
Uh...What??
- They're still freezing the funding, they just don't want to tell anyone about it.
  
  But like, that's how you freeze the funding... Agencies operate as normal until there is an official memo saying not to.
"Sorry guys, the spending freeze wasn't supposed to be announced yet! It's supposed to be part of a larger plan later this year meant to kickstart a 'The Purge' type situation which we think will be really great for the American people! Stay tuned and we'll have more info in the coming months! Be on the lookout for Armageddon 26, and let's make America GREAT again!"
- The rest of the world
What a mook.
The only backlash that matters in the end is the one that sees him hanging from his ankles in the middle of a town square. Until then, he'll just try something else.
- This matters though. It means my cousins lab gets funding back so they will be able to pay for power without which they would have lost millions in samples because the refrigeration would have died.
  
  I don't disagree that it matters. But I can't help but think of every block of Cheetolini's agenda as just temporary because he'll simply keep taking it higher and higher until it hits the supreme court, and gets his way anyway.
  That was his entire plan from the beginning. He knows that literally everything he tries to do is going to get challenged. And he knows that if he sticks to his guns and it gets to the SC, he wins every time.
  If the SC was unbiased, I wouldn't be so brazen about it. But we are at the point where nothing will make a permanent difference except dragging him and his cronies through the streets and damn the personal consequences.
  The tree of liberty and all that jazz...
  Edited to add: I should point out that I'm not American. I'm a Canadian who is terrified of your shit spreading north and dragging us into a fight we don't want and literally begging you guys to fucking do something about it.
Don't worry, it'll be resumed in a month or two.
I’ve hit rock bottom once: I lost my job, went into bankruptcy, had to move back home with my folks, car was undriveable, and my girlfriend had gone back to her ex. It was, for all intents and purposes, the worst time of my life. I even failed joining the Army to escape my misery.
But, the beautiful thing about hitting rock bottom is that the only way to go from there is up. It was hard, and I had to rely on family and friends. But eventually I made it. I went to college, got my first developer job, got into a great (at the time) relationship, and moved out of my parent’s house and back on my own. I am better for it.
All of that to say that maybe (yes, I’m being optimistic) Trump is what this country needs to hit rock bottom, do some self reflection, and pull ourselves back up to a better place.
The biggest takeaway I learned way back when is that no matter how bad things get, the world keeps spinning. We can either we could sit out and watch the world move on without us, or get up and keep moving.
- Rock bottom for a country means millions of people a year dying preventable deaths.
  These kind of “experiments” have a name — “genocide”. Atleast that’s what the social engineering in Camodia and China ended up being called, due to the immense human loss resulting from them.
- It sounds like you don't understand that most people don't have the safety net you had when you needed it. He wants to make it so nobody can count on the govt to provide that safety net for those people without other options. You're not just being optimistic, you're being naive and uninformed and ignorant, and frankly, harmful.
  
  Given the level of responses I’m getting, I believe you’re right. 🤷‍♂️
- All of that to say that maybe (yes, I’m being optimistic) Trump is what this country needs to hit rock bottom, do some self reflection, and pull ourselves back up to a better place.
  That presumes the part of the country which allowed this is capable of self-reflection.
  
  Not necessarily. If enough of them die drinking raw milk...
  
  That presumes the part of the country which allowed this is capable of self-reflection.
  It also presumes that the pulling back up will be done by the same who are responsible for hitting the rock bottom.
- This “it’ll be good for us” optimistic bullshit often doesn’t correctly conceptualize what “rock bottom” looks like for an entire country
  
  I thought we had learned the first time, but impressively the bottom has gone much lower.
- I'm guessing your rock bottom did not involve a concentration camp,
- Okay, there's one (well more than one) problem with this: America ain't anywhere near rock bottom, and Trump won't get it anywhere near rock bottom. If you want to know what rock bottom looks like on a country-wide scale look up developing countries in central Africa or pre-war Syria. If y'all don't manage to put a stop to the American downward slide you'll find yourselves in free fall towards the third world. And no I don't mean the "America is a third world country" third world; I'm talking about the actual, ruled-by-military-dictatorships third world.

57 comments