A divided US supreme court has rejected the Trump administration’s request to continue freezing nearly $2bn in foreign aid, marking a setback for the White House and the tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tasked with slashing the size of the US government and its spending.
In a 5-4 decision released on Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett joined the liberal justices in leaving in place a ruling from a US district judge last month, which ordered the administration to unfreeze the nearly $2bn in aid for work that had already been done, and that had been approved by Congress.
