Michigan officials were scrambling to assess the potential impact of the federal grant freeze, which the White House is defending as an effort to be ‘good stewards of taxpayer dollars.'

The White House confirmed that OMB pulled the memo Wednesday in a two sentence notice to agencies and departments, but said that Trump’s underlying executive orders targeting federal spending in areas like diversity,

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt vehemently defended the administration’s sweeping freeze on federal aid, arguing Tuesday in her first press briefing that it was critical to scrutinize the scope of the government’s spending.