California AG Rob Bonta asks court to enforce restraining order on Trump spending freeze
Saying that President Donald Trump “forced our hand,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta and nearly two dozen of his fellow attorneys general on Friday announced they are seeking a federal court order to enforce a temporary restraining order barring Trump from freezing the disbursement of federal funds.
“The president is spitting in the face of our democracy,” Bonta said in an online press conference Friday.
A week ago, a federal judge in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order against Trump’s proposed federal spending freeze, which the Trump administration said was to review federal spending for, among other things, “wokeness.”
Bonta said that despite that order, federal dollars are still being withheld from vital programs, including funding for Medicaid and federal childcare, support for the elderly and public transportation infrastructure projects.
“All told, we’re talking 34%, over a third of our state budget. A massive irreplaceable chunk,” Bonta said.
Bonta said nationwide, the amount of money being withheld numbers $3 trillion; he said in California it is easily in the tens of billions of dollars.
California’s attorney general — a staunch Trump critic — stopped short of accusing the president of malfeasance. Asked whether he thought Trump was intentionally defying the court order, Bonta said, “Whether it’s intentional, whether it’s incompetence, whether it’s an oversight, we choose not to speculate on that at this point. The motion to enforce will get the job done, that’s why we brought it.”
And if Trump defies the court further?
Bonta did not answer that directly, but said he is confident the courts will hold Trump to account.
“This is American democracy working exactly the way it’s supposed to,” he said.
In addition to his motion to enforce the existing temporary restraining order, Bonta said he and his AG colleagues also are seeking a preliminary injunction, which would bar Trump from enacting a freeze while the case is being litigated. A preliminary injunction is a longer-lasting order, while a temporary restraining order, as the name implies, is not.
Trump’s camp has argued that the Office of Management and Budget memo freezing federal funds has been rescinded, but Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that the funding freeze remains in effect.
This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 2:46 PM with the headline "California AG Rob Bonta asks court to enforce restraining order on Trump spending freeze."