Trump Took Your Money. State Leaders Are Fighting to Get It Back | Opinion - Newsweek

Nevada families were denied a promised 20 percent cut in their electric bills. Mississippi teachers were forced to abandon a program that turned struggling readers into some of the nation’s fastest-improving students. And sexual assault survivors in Texas may never see justice, because the money for DNA testing of their rape kits simply vanished.

All because the president asserted power he does not have and blocked money that rightly belonged to the American people.

President Donald Trump is using the power of the White House to withhold funds already promised to states. These efforts to cut approved federal grants that benefit Americans across the country are not just unfair. They are against the law.

Over the past two years, the Trump administration has delayed, frozen, or canceled over $170 billion in funding approved by Congress and promised to the states. Yet the Constitution is clear that the people’s representatives in Congress decide how to spend taxpayer dollars, not the president.

A new project called Lost Funds, from the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness, documents the devastating impact on all 50 states and the District of Columbia from the billions of dollars of canceled and disrupted federal funds. These cuts have created uncertainty and hurt millions of American families who rely every day on federally funded state services ranging from school meals to health care to disaster relief and beyond.

But states are not helpless when it comes to defending these important programs and services.

We are a former New Jersey attorney general and a former Massachusetts deputy attorney general. We know firsthand the power attorneys general have to protect the people in their states when the federal government oversteps its authority. Today, many state attorneys general are fighting back and confronting a president who is unlawfully depriving American citizens of critical funding intended to improve their lives and communities.

Trump began withholding taxpayer funds in his first days back in the White House. In January 2025, the Office of Management and Budget sent shock waves across the country when it announced a freeze of trillions of dollars already approved for childcare, education, medical help for new mothers, job training for farmers—even clean drinking water.

But many states fought back. Attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia sued the federal government to stop the freeze. And in March 2025, they won. A federal judge blocked the administration from overriding Congress’s spending decisions, forcing the funds back on track in the states that sued.

In response, Trump just pushed forward, continuing to indiscriminately slash billions of dollars already approved by Congress. Last November, for example, the administration temporarily froze SNAP funding that left more than 40 million Americans—kids, families, seniors—unable to buy food. Half of the states sued to release the money.

Many states have continued to fight these disruptions. Governors and attorneys general have drawn a line and refused to accept illegal cuts, fighting to get Americans their money back and restore the services they rely on. State leadership matters.

Despite the administration’s attempts to grant itself unfettered power to give or withhold federal money to states, the courts have spoken: The president cannot deny states the funds that Congress has already authorized. And American taxpayers agree: A poll conducted in August 2026 found that most Americans do not think Trump should be able to withhold congressionally authorized funds.

For generations, states and the federal government have worked in partnership to deliver services Americans pay for and depend on. The president wants to dismantle that partnership, but state attorneys general are fighting to uphold the basic constitutional pact that no president gets to decide which laws to follow.

Americans have kept their side of the bargain. We paid our taxes. Congress did its job to fund vital services millions of people rely on. Now state attorneys general are standing up for the American people, making sure the president does his job, follows the law, and provides promised federal funding to support Americans across the country.

Joanna Lydgate served as chief deputy attorney general of Massachusetts and is CEO of States United, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the rule of law and free, fair, secure elections.Matt Platkin is the former Attorney General of New Jersey and a partner at Platkin LLP.Views expressed in this article are the writers' own.