Trump administration freezes nearly all federal grants and loans. BREAKING NEWS!!!

President Donald Trump has ordered a freeze to domestic and foreign federal aid in a sweeping effort to stop government funding for causes that don't fit with his agenda.

A memo sent out Monday night from Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the changes would go into effect Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET and relate to a string of executive orders Trump has signed since taking office last week.

“Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” Vaeth said.

The memo said the pause would allow “time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities.”

The memo, which could affect billions of dollars in aid, noted an exception for Social Security and Medicare and direct payments to individuals, saying those benefits would not be affected.

Vaeth said in the memo that agencies must “immediately identify” any legally mandated actions or deadlines that could come up during the pause.

The memo, previously reported by Politico, did not detail which groups or programs would be affected, but emphasized that federal aid must be brought in line with Trump's policy agenda, including a flurry of executive orders that marked a dramatic break with President Joe Biden's administration. Trump signed more executive orders Monday, including ones designed to roll back government diversity, inclusion and equality operations, and to build an Israel-style "Iron Dome" missile defense system.

Speaking at the House Republicans' annual policy retreat at his Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami, Trump said his administration “has been moving with urgency and historic speed to reverse every single disaster of the Biden administration.”

Monday's memo sparked immediate pushback on Capitol Hill, where some believe it poses a direct challenge to the authorities given exclusively to Congress.

The Democratic leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees — Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. — wrote to OMB expressing their "extreme alarm about the Administration’s efforts to undermine Congress’s power of the purse, threaten our national security, and deny resources for states, localities, American families, and businesses."