The Trump administration announced a sweeping freeze on all federal grants, funds already approved by Congress.

There is a lot of confusion this morning about what exactly this directive means,

but it may be the most far-reaching executive action this White House has taken yet.

It could potentially halt hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending on everything from assistance to farmers,

to Head Start programs, to disaster relief and public transportation. I'm so. I'm so, so happy to have on the podcast today.

Returning is David Dan.

You know him as the executive editor of the American prospect.

Welcome back, David.

It's always such a pleasure to have you.

Thanks, Brianna.

And for the first time, Freddie Brewster, who's been reporting on similar issues over at The Lever, welcome to bad faith.

Thanks, Brianna. I'm happy to be here.

So I said similar issues. The issue at hand is what's going on with the Trump administration in these first days in weeks.

I've gotten a lot of

feedback from the audience wanting some clarity on what is and isn't happening specifically with

these executive actions. And both the Lever and the American Prospect have been doing a really

exceptional job of tracking all of these things. Now, I want to start in perhaps a little bit of an unorthodox place

because I do think that a lot of the viewers of this, early listeners of this podcast in particular,

have real questions not just about what is happening, but about what they should understand and

believe, given that the kind of overwhelming corporate traditional media environment is to be

sort of running cover for the Democratic Party in this moment

as even the most loyal adherence to the Democratic Party are sort of tearing their hair out and asking themselves,

...