Bonta says Trump is ‘spitting in the face of our democracy’ as federal funds remain frozen

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta joined a coalition of more than 20 states Friday in asking a federal court to once again intercede and force the Trump administration to unfreeze hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds appropriated by Congress to the states.

In two separate legal motions, Bonta and 22 other state attorneys general alleged that the administration has ignored a previously issued temporary restraining order requiring it to unfreeze the funding. They asked for that order to be enforced, and for the court to issue an additional preliminary injunction further blocking the freeze and ensuring the release of the funds while the litigation plays out.

“The administration is creating widespread chaos and causing irreparable harm to our states and the American people,” Bonta said during an afternoon news conference. “By not complying with the court order, by attempting to usurp Congress’ constitutional responsibility to hold the purse strings, the president is spitting in the face of our democracy.”

The Trump administration has denied wrongdoing and said it is acting within its authority.

The latest legal sparring continues a debate that has raged since Trump’s budget office issued a memo Jan. 27 that purported to halt funding for an array of federal programs as the new administration determined which of the funding aligned with Trump’s political agenda.

The memo was met with immediate outrage from Democrats in Congress, which by statute controls the federal budget, and from state leaders, who started flagging disruptions to funding streams supporting vital services all across the nation — such as Medicaid disbursement systems.

The White House rescinded its memo days later, and the administration has maintained in court that funding restrictions have not been as widespread as the states have argued and that the administration regardless was acting well within its authority.

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In one response in court, the administration wrote that Trump and his Office of Management and Budget “plainly have authority to direct agencies to fully implement the President’s agenda, consistent with each individual agency’s underlying statutory authorities.”

That was what Trump had done with his executive orders, and what OMB did with its since-withdrawn memo, the administration argued.

Trump administration officials have also repeatedly met state complaints about specific disruptions to funding with denials — while simultaneously lauding the administration’s efforts to slash federal spending through billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

State officials have said the White House is simply not telling the truth and that, regardless of what it is saying publicly, it is withholding funding illegally.

“One week ago, a court ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze $3 trillion in federal funds with critical state funding still blocked. The administration is not complying with that court order,” Bonta said.

Bonta said the $3 trillion in funding initially targeted by the Trump administration’s memo included funds amounting to more than a third of California’s budget — including $107.5 billion in Medicaid funding for about 14.5 million Californians, including 5 million children and 2.3 million seniors and individuals with disabilities.

He said funds remained frozen across an array of programs, including healthcare, child care and foster care; education; nutritional support programs for children and the elderly; funds for roads and bridge repairs; funds that support the state workforce, that reduce pollution and that provide rebates and subsidies for cleaner, safer, more affordable homes; and programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution along major California corridors — including one between Los Angeles and the Imperial Valley.

They also included funds allocated by Congress under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, he said.

“Those are just a few examples of the programs of the people that have been left high and dry because of the administration’s illegal and unconstitutional attempt to freeze funding,” he said.

He called the ongoing freeze on such funds “illegal and un-American,” reflecting a flagrant disregard for the rule of law on the part of the president.

“In our country, when a court of law orders you to do something, you must obey no matter who you are, including, yes, the president,” Bonta said. “Not liking aspects of the order doesn’t give you the right to plug your ears, turn your back to the judge, and pretend it’s not happening.”

Bonta said asking the court to enforce its existing order is “the best pathway to get compliance and get the money that should be flowing flowing,” and that he believed the states would be successful.

He said he was not “speculating” as to why the freeze has not been fully lifted in accordance with the existing order, but said the funding is “just not flowing” — so the states had to fight back.

Reports of frozen federal funding have proliferated in recent days, including in California. For example, St. John’s Community Health, a network of Southern California community clinics that provide care for low or no cost, said this week that a federal grant for its transgender health program had been terminated, resulting in a loss of more than $740,000.

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The grant, which was expected to total more than $1.6 million over four years and covered education, case management and “wraparound services” such as prevention, testing and treatment for diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C for transgender patients, made up just under a third of funding for the network’s transgender health program, according to St. John’s.

In a notice, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as a grant recipient, the health center had to immediately terminate programs “promoting or inculcating gender ideology” supported with the grant. Jim Mangia, president and chief executive of St. John’s Community Health, denounced the move as “illegal and unconstitutional.”

St. John’s later reported that it was unable to draw down an additional $1 million in federal funding through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which was intended to support mental health services for transgender and nonbinary people. The healthcare network said the $1 million was the amount remaining from a $4-million grant allocation.

Republicans in Congress have generally supported Trump’s efforts, suggesting they are in line with the priorities of the American people. They also confirmed Russ Vought — an architect of Project 2025 and of Trump’s budget approach — as White House budget director this week.

“Russ is a conservative force against the radical left and the Washington establishment. With his help, we’ll restore fiscal sanity to our budgets and dismantle the regulatory state,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said Trump and Republicans in Congress are aligned, including on the budget.

On Friday, he wrote in a post on X about the federal budget that the “American people gave President Trump a mandate to deliver on his key priorities: securing the border, rebuilding our defense, and unleashing American energy. The time to act is now, and Senate Republicans are ready to roll.”

Democrats in Congress who have denounced the administration’s funding moves as illegal power grabs continued to do so Friday.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Friday that hundreds of billions of dollars appropriated by Congress were still being withheld by the administration — illegally.

“The president’s sweeping freeze is causing real pain for people in every part of the country — in red states and blue states and everywhere in between — and it must end right now,” she said.