Treasury Must Unfreeze Nonprofit’s $95 Million in Grant Funds

A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from withholding $95 million in grant funding to The National Endowment for Democracy on Monday.

The non-governmental organization sufficiently showed that it’s likely to succeed on the merits of its claim under the Administrative Procedure Act, Judge Dabney L. Friedrich said. The US District Court for the District of Columbia granted the organization’s motion for a preliminary injunction and ordered the administration to unfreeze the funds.

“These harms to the endowment’s global reputation and to the ‘very existence of its programs’ are irreparable,” Friedrich said.

The endowment, which focuses on the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions worldwide, sued in response to President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order. The order directed the 90-day pause and review on US foreign development assistance. The Trump administration initially withheld $167 million, but the district court ordered the US Treasury to disburse $97 million to the organization in March.

The organization alleges it has faced an “unprecedented cash flow crisis” and that, without the current round of funding it seeks, it won’t be able to “fully support” over 500 grants and 53 projects. The endowment argues that the frozen funds are appropriated under Title I and can’t be subject to the executive order.

Munger Tolles & Olson LLP represents the endowment.

The case is Nat’l Endowment for Democracy v. US, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-00648, 8/11/25.