Federal health researchers, nonprofits and programs for early childhood education reported that their access to federal funds had gone down, raising alarms about access to jobs, health care services,

The move represented the new president’s most audacious effort yet to disrupt the nation’s spending priorities.

After major backlash, Trump’s radical plan to freeze government spending is on hold. Now, it’s all very confusing and somewhat opaque — which, under Trump, is by design — but here’s what appears to have happened: We often forget that Trump has frequently been cowed by public opinion when it turns against him.