WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has tried to freeze up to hundreds of billions of dollars in federal money and given billionaire ally Elon Musk access to sensitive Treasury payment systems that send out trillions of dollars. Trump and his team have purged agency watchdogs, top FBI executives and federal prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
Now, Trump and Musk want to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development, which gives tens of billions of congressionally approved dollars to foreign allies every year.
All are areas where members of Congress have either direct power or some level of oversight. And yet at each turn, Trump has bypassed them.
Since he returned to the White House two weeks ago, Trump — at the height of his political power after he won the popular vote — has been expanding his own executive authority and steamrolling Congress as he tries to shrink the government and rid it of anyone he perceives to be disloyal.
Lawmakers traditionally have heralded their oversight responsibilities and the power of the purse as points of pride in a city where there is a constant push and pull among the three branches of government. But in the second Trump administration, Republicans are so far largely deferring to Trump, who carries a huge level of influence among GOP primary voters.
Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and previously railed against executive overreach by Democratic presidents, have sat on the sidelines as Trump carries out controversial — and sometimes legally questionable — executive actions and orders. Instead, they’re rooting Trump on as he upends Washington and tests America’s system of checks and balances.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told NBC News that Democratic presidents have also tried to “push the limits” of their power.
“They’re going to see how far they can go,” Tillis said of the Trump administration. “I don’t begrudge them for doing it.”
But Tillis, who did not point to examples of Democratic presidents’ seeking to gut agencies by executive action, said it “would be helpful” if Trump sought congressional approval to refuse to spend money that’s legally required by Congress, like on USAID.
“I think it’s legitimate; it’s just not going to last long-term if it doesn’t make sense,” said Tillis, who faces re-election next year.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at a gathering of House Republicans last week at Trump’s golf club near Miami that trump has “been using his executive authority, I think, in an appropriate manner. He got a mandate from the American people. Let’s not forget he ran on restoring common sense and fiscal sanity and ensuring that the government would be more efficient. It was a major theme of the campaign.”
A moderate Republican offered some words of caution for Trump on his efforts to dismantle USAID.
“I am concerned about — I have questions about the legality,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
She then summed up the largely muted reaction among most congressional Republicans to Trump.
“We’re all kind of getting into the mode of: Things happen, the news drops, and there’s this explosive reaction, and then you find out that, OK, well, we’re narrowing the order or, well, there’s not really going to be tariffs,” Murkowski said. “And so I think we’re all just kind of processing and figuring out the appropriate response.”
Except for quietly scuttling scandal-plagued former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s bid for attorney general, Senate Republicans have also been overwhelmingly deferential in supporting Trump’s nominees amid pressure from his allies to get on board with picks like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. More controversial nominations are ahead, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s for health and human services secretary and Tulsi Gabbard’s for director of national intelligence.
USAID under attack
Musk said Monday that the government efficiency department Trump put him in charge of was “shutting down USAID,” and agency employees were told that they would not be allowed to enter their Washington headquarters and should work from home. Later in the day, Trump suggested USAID had been engaged in “fraud” and said he had appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as its acting administrator.
Rubio notified Congress that “a review of USAID’s foreign assistance activities is underway with an eye towards potential reorganization,” the State Department said.
“It’s been 20 or 30 years where people tried to reform it, and it refuses to reform. It refuses to cooperate,” Rubio said of USAID during a visit to El Salvador on Monday. “When we were in Congress, we couldn’t even get answers to basic questions about programs. … That’s not going to continue.”
Asked by NBC News whether Trump could unilaterally dismantle USAID without congressional action, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., refused to criticize Trump and echoed Rubio’s frustrations that the agency has not shared information about how it is spending tax dollars.
“I think it’s a lot more about finding out how the dollars are being spent, where they’re going and whether or not they’re consistent with the administration and our country’s priorities when it comes to our national interests,” Thune said.
At the end of his first week in office, Trump fired 18 independent inspectors general, who were tasked with investigating instances of fraud, waste and abuse within federal agencies. Democrats and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Trump’s move violated a law Grassley helped write that requires the president to give 30 days’ notice to Congress before he removed an inspector general and say why.
Still, Grassley was largely deferential to Trump.
“There may be good reason the IGs were fired. We need to know that if so,” he said at the time.
Last week, Republicans appeared to be caught off-guard after the Trump White House tried to unilaterally pause all federal loans and grants — previously approved by Congress — so it could review that the money was not funding initiatives it opposed. GOP leaders rallied behind the planned funding freeze, with House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., an institutionalist and 22-year congressional veteran, saying he had “no problem” with Trump’s actions and others calling it perfectly “legal.”
Hours later, after Trump rescinded the order that froze grants and loans and sparked confusion across the country, Republicans applauded the move. A federal judge also temporarily blocked Trump’s freeze last week, though U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan said Monday that some forms of federal aid still appear to be frozen.
Democrats make a stand
With majorities in the House and the Senate, Republicans could use committees to launch investigations and subpoena Trump officials for records and testimony. But for now, that is not likely to happen. Congressional Republicans are working closely with Trump to pass his agenda on expanding energy production, boosting border security and cutting taxes.
So it has fallen to Democrats in the minority to find ways to try to stop him.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a letter Monday that Democrats will announce legislation “to prevent unlawful access” to the Treasury payment system “that contains highly confidential and personal information related to Social Security and Medicare recipients, taxpayers, households, nonprofits, businesses and federal contractors.” The measure could test GOP willingness to put a check on Trump’s move.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., called on Democrats to “fight back” against Trump and Musk, urging them to vote no on all future nominees. And Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees USAID and the State Department, threatened Monday to place a “blanket hold” and stall all of Trump’s State Department nominees in response to his attacks on USAID.
“Dismantling USAID is illegal and makes us less safe. USAID was created by federal law and is funded by Congress. Donald Trump and Elon Musk can’t just wish it away with a stroke of a pen — they need to pass a law,” Schatz said in a statement.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a moderate, warned that if Trump has “gravely wounded” USAID and that if he succeeds at unilaterally abolishing it, then a future president could also ignore appropriations laws.
“There’s some disagreement about USAID,” he said. “But the much more fundamental fight is over whether an agreement in appropriations that is a law will be respected and can hold.”
Earlier Monday, a group of House and Senate Democrats was blocked from entering USAID’s headquarters at the Ronald Reagan Building. Outside, they showed support for USAID workers and decried Musk’s push to hollow out the agency.
“We are going to fight in every way we can, in the courts, in public opinion, with the bully pulpit, in the halls of Congress and here at AID itself,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the new top Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who represents thousands of federal workers.
Overhauling USAID is “a matter for Congress to deal with — not an unelected billionaire oligarch named Elon Musk,” Connolly said.
