A constitutional conflict is brewing over Congress' power of the purse and whether the president can refuse to spend what Congress has directed him to spend.

Since taking office, the Trump administration — along with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — has been seeking to cut federal spending, reduce workforce levels and dismantle programs and bureaucracies without going through the legislative process. They're instead claiming that the president has the power to unilaterally override the existing spending plans set by Congress.

The Trump administration's broad assertion of executive power to slash spending is not completely out of the blue. Before taking office, President Trump's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director — Project 2025 architect Russell Vought — and OMB general counsel Mark Paoletta were both very vocal that the president can and should take unilateral actions to cut spending. And in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published in November, Musk and then DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy announced that DOGE "will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws."