Trump 2nd term updates: Trump says USAID is run by 'radical lunatics'

“There was a short-term pause or funding freeze on certain discretionary spending payments, such as government grants, only for us to quickly look at the scams, dishonesty, waste and abuse that's taken place in our government for too long,” Trump said while delivering remarks prior to signing the Laken Riley Act.

“And, restating right now to correct any confusion that the media has purposely and somehow, for whatever reason, created Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have not been affected by any action we're taking in any way, shape or form,” he said.

“We are merely looking at parts of the big bureaucracy where there has been tremendous waste and fraud and abuse,” he added, before divulging into an argument about money sent to Gaza.

Trump said that “these were the payments and types of payments affected by the temporary freeze,” emphasizing that “the American people strongly support these efforts.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the policy on social media, saying Trump still plans to implement a funding freeze without specifying what mechanism the president plans to use.
"This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X defending the administration's announcement to reverse the directive. "It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo."

"Why? To end any confusion created by the court's injunction," she said. "The President's EO's on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented."

The Trump administration's decision to rescind its Office of Management and Budget directive pausing federal funding comes just hours after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted the directive and told ABC News' Mary Bruce that there was no confusion regarding the pause.

"It's very clear this is a temporary pause on federal funding to ensure that tax dollars are not funding things that this president has signed out of law," she said.

"I would like to double down on the fact that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, which I'd like to be clear on that today, welfare benefits, individual assistance, food stamps, etc., will not be impacted. So the American people should not be confused about this," she added.

When asked by "Good Morning America’s" Michael Strahan if the disruption in the Medicaid system was a sign of a chaotic rollout, she said, "No, absolutely not."

During Leavitt's first press briefing Tuesday afternoon, the White House implied the media were to blame for the confusion.

"Well, I think there's only uncertainty in this room amongst the media. There's no uncertainty in this building," she said.

In a new release, the State Department said the freeze on U.S. foreign aid is “already paying dividends to our country and our people,” claiming that over a billion dollars “in spending not aligned with an America First agenda has been prevented” already.

The department defended the pause, saying it was necessary to stop programs because “the participants -- both inside and outside of government -- have little to no incentive to share programmatic-level details so long as the dollars continue to flow.”

Additionally, the release defends the waiver program in place -- saying the process “was used successfully dozens of times in the first several days alone” and blaming rejections of “many requests” on the applicant’s failure to provide “the level of detail necessary to allow a thorough evaluation.”

The release also claims that setting aside support for Ukraine, the U.S. is “spending roughly $70 billion in foreign aid annually.” This appears to be taken from the requested international affairs budget for FY2024, as the enacted budget was $60 billion, not including money set aside for emergency funding for Ukraine and other crises.

-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston