President Donald Trump is relying on a relatively obscure federal agency to reshape government. The Office of Personnel Management was created in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and is the equivalent of the government's human resources departent.

The Trump administration OPM and OMB offices went on a memo blitz on Monday, including directing agency leaders to pause federal grants and to deliver return to office plans.

A federal judge signaled he will issue a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from freezing federal loans and grants.

President Trump's top budget office has directed agencies to pause federal loans and grants so the administration can review them.

The Trump administration has withdrawn a memo that caused significant issues by canceling federal loans and grants—though a spokesperson clarified that this does not mean the decision itself has been reversed.

Washington Post staff tried to separate what is happening from what is not, and to explain what may happen in the future.

See agency by agency, the more than one million federal workers who could be affected.

A White House order to freeze federal grants reflects a theory of presidential power that Donald Trump clearly endorsed during his 2024 campaign. The approach was further outlined in the Project 2025 governing treatise that candidate Trump furiously denied was a blueprint for his second administration.

The Trump administration late Monday directed federal agencies to pause the disbursement of loans and grants while the government conducts a review to ensure spending aligns with President Trump’s

Senate Democrats are demanding Republicans postpone a vote scheduled for Thursday on Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, after the budget office on Monday issued a broadly worded memo freezing large swaths of federal assistance.

President Donald Trump has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Feb. 4, according to the prime minister's office. Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House in Trump's second term.

The withdrawal of the federal freeze was a stunning about-face for President Donald Trump’s White House, which has so far pushed the envelope to reshape the federal government, sowing chaos and confusion in firing career civil servants, pausing foreign aid programs and offering federal workers a buyout.