So, after the quite impressive 2024 election in the United States, we now have our 47th president, and it is none other than Mr. Donald Trump. And sure enough, right after he took office once again, he began doing the work, and some people say that he took way too bold actions from the get-go. One of those actions, you know, freezing literally billions of dollars meant for foreign aid, is something that has caused a lot of mess in the industry, and now, he’s facing this Trump Foreign Aid Nonprofits Lawsuit as the U.S. President.
Well, the thing is, this international aid is actually approved by Congress, so the people behind this lawsuit are saying that Trump had no business freezing these funds. Now, let’s get to all the important details regarding this case and try to make sense of things, shall we?
Meet the Nonprofits That Said “No Way” and Took Trump to Court
Just so you know, this lawsuit is actually filed by two nonprofit organizations out there, namely the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) and the Journalism Development Network (JDN).
And for those who have no idea about what these organizations do, well, first of all, AVAC is based in New York and works globally to stop HIV/AIDS. And the argument that this organization is putting out there is that since the funding was stopped, they had to shut down many major programs that were meant to help out people like the CASPR project, which helps African communities with HIV prevention.
And just like that, JDN is based in Maryland and supports investigative journalism around the world, and sure enough, since the funding stopped, they had to lay off any staff members and shut down major projects as well.
Though It Wasn’t Just About Politics
See, sure, the people in favour of this lawsuit say that this freezing of $2 billion caused real-world problems in third-world countries, and that’s just not a good sign for humanity as a whole.
And those who are in favour of the Trump administration say that these billions of dollars that are going to foreign air every single year, can be used elsewhere, like in the United States, to make the lives better for average Americans. They claim that these American taxpayer dollars are actually doing very little to solve humanitarian problems in the world and mostly are going in corrupt people’s pockets, and that’s why these actions are necessary. Just like how financial institutions have come under legal scrutiny for mishandling sensitive information in the TD Bank Data Breach Lawsuit, this case also raises serious concerns about the limits of executive authority and accountability.
What Did the Judge Say?
Well, despite the back and forth in the court, on 13th February 2025, U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali straight up ordered the Trump administration to release the frozen money. Why? Well, he went on to say that the government had no right to stop payments like that, especially when it is already approved by Congress. But the thing is, even after the order, nonprofits and contractors reported that they hadn’t received any money yet, and that just goes to show that the Trump administration isn’t backing down, and they’ll stretch this thing even further.
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Read related cases in our Other Major Lawsuits & Disputes section.
