WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A federal judge has ordered a temporary lift on a freeze on funding to United States (US) aid and development programmes ordered by President Donald Trump’s administration, court documents seen by AFP on Friday showed.

Judge Amir Ali, who Joe Biden appointed in November, prohibited the Trump administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing” foreign assistance funds, according to Thursday’s ruling.

The Trump administration has frozen foreign aid funding, ordered thousands of internationally based staff to return to the United States and begun slashing the US Agency for International Development (USAID) headcount of 10,000 employees to around only 300.

This has put the work of USAID in some of the world’s poorest countries in doubt. The agency has an annual budget of US$42.8 billion, representing 42 per cent of humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide.

The new court order also stops the government from “issuing, implementing, enforcing, or otherwise giving effect to terminations, suspensions or stop-work orders” in relation to existing contracts as of January 19, 2025.

The ruling said that the “stated purpose in implementing the suspension of all foreign aid is to provide the opportunity to review programs for their efficiency and consistency with priorities”.

“However, at least to date, defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organisations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programmes,” it said.

The plaintiffs in the case are or represent groups of small and large businesses and health and journalistic nonprofits that receive federal grant money to perform foreign assistance work.

The plaintiffs “have moved for a temporary restraining order, with evidence detailing the devastating effects on American businesses and nonprofits, which have been forced to shut down programmes, to furlough or lay off employees, and in some instances to shutter altogether as a result of the challenged action”.

Trump, who began his second term last month, has launched a campaign led by his top donor Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.

The most concentrated fire has been on USAID, the primary organisation for distributing US humanitarian aid around the world with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries.

Trump has said USAID was “run by radical lunatics” and Musk has described it as a “criminal organisation” needing to be put “through the woodchipper”.

Newly confirmed Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr said that USAID, founded by his uncle, slain president John F Kennedy, has become a “sinister propagator of totalitarianism”.

Trump fired the independent inspector general for USAID this week, US media outlets reported.

Paul Martin’s dismissal came a day after his office issued a report critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency, the Washington Post, CNN and others reported.