President Trump exploits legal loophole to keep D.O.G.E running

Donald Trump is keeping D.O.G.E alive by bending the law in his favor. Despite federal court rulings blocking his spending freezes, his administration has found a way around them.

Instead of openly defying the courts, Trump’s team has placed political appointees inside government agencies, instructing them to pause spending under different legal justifications.

The result? The money remains locked up while the administration claims it’s complying with court orders.

Trump’s appointees keep USAID funds frozen through technicalities

Pete Marocco, a Trump appointee leading efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), filed a declaration in a federal court in Washington confirming how the strategy works.

Marocco admitted that USAID officials had been told to disregard Trump’s freeze order, but that didn’t mean the money started moving. The agency’s Phoenix payment system, which handles contracts and grants, remains nonfunctional, according to employees at USAID and the aid organizations relying on its funding.

Humanitarian aid programs are still unable to process payments, and officials say the new system makes it even harder to release funds. According to Marocco, Trump’s team has created a new payment system with additional layers of approval.

Every transaction now requires written proof from a senior official that the money aligns with administration policies. The review process ensures that each grant and contract is vetted before approval.

“Payments will be released as they are processed,” Marocco said in his court filing. But the key detail? Trump’s order is no longer the reason for the freeze.

Instead, agencies are invoking other legal authorities to keep the money tied up. These statutes were never blocked by the courts, which means the administration can still use them.

Invoking that kind of loophole is not limited to the freeze on foreign aid spending. It has also arisen in litigation over an order by Mr. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget instructing agencies to halt as much as $3 trillion in domestic grants, loans, and contractual spending.

Trump considers sending D.O.G.E savings to Americans

While Trump’s team is busy blocking government spending, D.O.G.E is generating massive savings. On Wednesday, Trump revealed that he was considering sending 20% of those savings directly to American citizens.

“There’s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the D.O.G.E savings to American citizens, and 20% goes to paying down debt,” Trump said at the FII Priority Summit in Miami Beach, Florida.

Trump’s comments came after Elon Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he would “check with the President” about a proposal to issue tax refund checks funded by D.O.G.E savings.

The idea was originally proposed by James Fishback, CEO of Azoria, a Miami-based investment firm. Fishback suggested Trump could distribute part of the cost savings from D.O.G.E as a “D.O.G.E Dividend”.

Musk has publicly said his goal is to cut federal spending by $2 trillion out of a $6.75 trillion annual budget. If that goal is met, Fishback argues that 20% of the savings—$400 billion—should go back to taxpayers. According to Fishback’s calculations, that would mean a $5,000 check for every U.S. household.

“When a breach of this magnitude happens in the private sector, the counterparty, at minimum, refunds the customer since they failed to deliver what was promised,” Fishback wrote in his proposal. “It’s high time for the federal government to do the same and refund money back to taxpayers given what D.O.G.E has uncovered.”

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