Americans Don’t Support the President Withholding Funds Allocated to States by Congress
Our government is based on a system of checks and balances that ensure no branch can seize too much power. The Constitution also establishes the states as power centers, giving them the right to set their own policies and act in the interest of their residents. In this system, states receive funding for essential services through appropriations from Congress, which holds the power of the purse.
Since taking office, President Trump has attempted a widespread freeze of federal funding. This has had an immediate impact on both states and federal agencies that rely on these funds. The courts have repeatedly held that the Administration does not have this power. And a large majority of Americans don’t support these actions either: Just 26 percent agree that President Trump should be able to withhold money from federal agencies without congressional approval.
Despite numerous court rulings, Trump has continued to threaten to withhold funding from states that have policies he does not agree with. One example of this is the administration’s targeting of states that need disaster relief funds. In the aftermath of the Los Angeles, CA wildfires, Trump insisted that the state adopt a voter ID law before he would free up federal aid. The administration also denied relief to North Carolina in its recovery from Hurricane Helene unless a city cancelled a program designed to support minority and female contractors.
A large majority of Americans do not support President Trump withholding disaster relief from states that do not align with his policy preferences. Across all political parties, Americans oppose the president adding policy conditions to this aid.
Ultimately, it’s up to the states to determine what policies work for their residents, and up to Congress to determine the appropriate funding for state programs. The administration is overstepping by trying to condition or withhold that funding in order to get states to comply with its policy preferences.
States United partnered with YouGov on a national survey of 1,524 adults between March 4 and 6, 2025.
- Just 26% agree that President Trump should be able to withhold money from federal agencies without congressional approval.
- Only 15% of Americans agree that President Trump should be able to withhold disaster relief money from states with policies that he disagrees with.
Levels of support for President Trump withholding money without congressional approval to do so are low. About one quarter of Americans (26%) strongly or somewhat agree that Trump should be able to withhold money from federal agencies without congressional approval. More than half (56%) somewhat or strongly disagree. As usual, these attitudes are powerfully informed by partisanship. About 84% of Democrats disagree as do just over half of independents (54%). Only 27% of Republicans disagree, but the plurality (47%) agree.
About 7 out of 10 Americans somewhat or strongly disagree that Trump should be able to withhold disaster relief money from states whose policies he disagrees with. Majorities—sometimes large majorities—of each partisan group also express some level of disagreement: 86% of Democrats, 64% of independents, and 55% of Republicans.
This survey is based on 1,524 interviews conducted on the internet of U.S. adults. Participants were drawn from YouGov’s online panel and were interviewed between March 4 and 6, 2025. Respondents were selected to be representative of American adults. Responses were additionally weighted to match population characteristics with respect to gender, age, race/ethnicity, education of registered voters, and U.S. Census region based on voter registration lists, the U.S. Census American Community Survey, and the U.S. Census Current Population Survey, as well as 2020 presidential vote. The margin of error for this survey is approximately ± 2.7 percentage points, though it is larger for the analysis of partisan subgroups described above. Therefore, sample estimates should differ from their expected value by less than the margin of error in 95% of all samples. This figure does not reflect non-sampling errors, including potential selection bias in panel participation or measurement error.