Trump’s faces lopsided record of losses as courts hamper his historic power grab

Donald Trump's efforts to seize funding powers from Congress have resulted in nearly 200 lawsuits, according to an extensive breakdown from the New York Times, but despite a lopsided record of losses, his administration has persisted in trying to create "a new kind of reality in Washington," causing a "corrosive uncertainty" as a result.

Under the Constitution, Congress is vested with the "power of the purse," enabling it to do things like grant funding and levy new taxes. Since returning to office in 2025, however, Trump has embarked on an unprecedented campaign to illegally seize that authority from Congress, levying a sweeping volley of import taxes against nearly every country and withholding congressionally approved funds on grounds that have often been capricious, petty or politically motivated. Congress, with the GOP in control of both chambers, has largely let him get away with it.

One place where Trump has not managed to get away with it is in court. On Tuesday, the New York Times published a deep dive into the lawsuits filed against the administration for reasons related to the president's attempts to "leverage federal funding." The report found 198 lawsuits in total, as of the start of March, a "lopsided" number of which have seen judges rule against Trump in one or another. It also found that, despite losing so badly so often, Trump has continued to try and reshape the reality of federal funding.

"President Trump has tried to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding to coerce states, punish opponents, remake programs and impose his views," the report explained. "His targets have repeatedly sued to stop him, and the courts have repeatedly rebuked him — only for the president to try again and again."

Many of these efforts have tied into Trump's earliest second-term executive orders, which, among other things, attempted "to end all 'diversity, equity and inclusion' in the government, to eradicate 'gender ideology,' to reverse the 'green new deal,' and to enforce 'election integrity.'"

“Anyone in the country who relies on federal dollars is depending on the president to get that money,” Matthew Lawrence, a law professor at Emory University, told the Times. “And that’s a new thing.”

Samuel Bagenstos, a law professor at the University of Michigan, likened the administration's persistence to a game of "three-card monte." When a court rules that Trump and his administration cannot proceed with their plan to withhold funds or target a certain program, they proceed to try the same thing somewhere else.

“Oh, well, you think I can’t do this thing over there? Well I’m going to do it over here," Bagenstos said.

While Congress has largely neglected to take action against Trump, he has been dealt consistent defeats in court, as the Times detailed.

"When plaintiffs have sought immediate relief, district court judges have temporarily blocked the administration’s actions 79 percent of the time, signaling plaintiffs’ likely success on the merits," the report explained. "In the 26 instances where district judges have issued partial or final rulings, the administration lost 23."

Despite all these losses in court, the Times noted that considerable damage was still done to the entities Trump targeted, with researchers being forced to end studies and non-profits being forced to cut staff while the legal proceedings play out.

“The result is a corrosive uncertainty that undermines the basic functioning of government,” Jacob Leibenluft, a former official in the Biden White House budget office, told the Times.

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