MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The White House this afternoon rescinded a memo that ordered a government spending freeze. But the White House says the overall effort remains, that effort being aligning government programs with Trump's priorities. All this comes after swift backlash and a full day of confusion over the memo's release. So what does it all mean for Trump's attempts to wrest control of the U.S. government? NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro is here. Hi, Domenico.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: OK, so what does it all mean? It sounds like the memo is out, but the intent behind it very much continues.
MONTANARO: Yeah, I mean, this much we know. OK, the original two-page memo that ordered a freeze of a lot of federal funding has now been rescinded. That order was supposed to take effect at 5 p.m. last night, but a federal judge blocked it. Bottom line, this seems to get the administration out of court.
But this is not the end of it. I mean, shortly after the memo was rescinded, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on social media this afternoon, quote, "this is not a rescission of the federal funding freeze," and that the president's executive orders, quote, "on federal funding remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented."
In other words, their intention, like you said, remains to cut programs they don't like, which is not unusual, for new administrations to want to cut discretionary programs. The problem with yesterday's memo was that it was so vague, it caused mass confusion across the country and seemed to indicate it would stop funding programs, even ones specifically authorized by Congress, if Trump didn't like them.
KELLY: Right. And what I'm trying to work out is could that still happen - the stopping of funding programs, even once authorized by Congress - given that the White House is contending, hey, the funding freeze is on?
MONTANARO: Yeah, it's not clear what they intend to target exactly. You know, they say they don't like diversity programs, climate change initiatives and other things like that. But what the memo did yesterday was call into question whether this administration will honor funding programs that came into - that were passed by Congress before Trump came into office. Here's Stephen Vladeck, constitutional law professor at Georgetown University.
STEPHEN VLADECK: What the memo is effectively claiming is that Congress' most important, its first, its most basic regulatory power under the Constitution - the power to spend money - is actually entirely dependent upon the President's beneficence. That's never been the understanding. And a world in which that was the law would be a world in which Congress would basically be impotent and wholly dependent upon the president's support to have any of its actions given effect.
MONTANARO: Yeah. This country was designed to have a system of checks and balances. Other presidents have also chafed at the limitations of, you know, the presidency. But the Congress and courts have been things that they've had to run up against, and this president seems intent to take it farther than other presidents in the past.
KELLY: Well, big picture, we are now - what? - 10 days into Trump's second term. There has been a fire hose of executive actions, orders, changes and so forth. My question - is that deliberate? Is it part of a strategy?
MONTANARO: Yeah, it seems to be ripped from the Trump playbook of distracting, trying to confuse, to gain attention for what they want us all to pay attention to - something former Trump strategist Steve Bannon used to talk a lot about. The idea is what you've seen - make things unclear, make people exhausted, make it harder for the media to focus on one thing and make it harder for the opposition to organize a message around what to focus on.
But the backlash to this spending freeze memo shows that there are limits to that kind of strategy. Just because something is done fast, doesn't necessarily mean it's the best way to run the government. And this is now the first major misstep by the Trump administration. But don't think this is going to mean any kind of dialing back.
KELLY: Right.
MONTANARO: Trump wants to test the powers and the limits of the presidency. And we're going to see just how far Congress and the courts will let him go.
KELLY: Domenico Montanaro. Thank you.
MONTANARO: You got it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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