But the spending freeze – along with other key moves early in this presidency, including the firing of Justice Department prosecutors and a bid to repeal birthright citizenship – also reflects Trump’s view that the presidency has almost unlimited power and he can simply decide what is legal and what isn’t.

The United States is estimated to have spent more than $400 billion on the kinds of antimissile goals that the president now says will provide “for the common defense.”

The Impoundment Control Act is a procedural law for how the president can withhold funds in certain specific circumstances for limited periods of time.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration freeze on federal grants and loans that could total trillions of dollars and cause disruptions in health care research, education program

President Donald Trump's effort to freeze federal aid spending has sparked a constitutional battle that could end up before the Supreme Court.

President Donald Trump’s dramatic pause of federal grants and loans is queuing up a Supreme Court showdown over the Constitution that will test the court’s recently muscular commitment to curb executive power.