A divided United States Supreme Court has rejected a bid by President DONALD TRUMP to freeze some two billion dollars in foreign aid payments.

The court, in its first significant ruling on a legal challenge to TRUMP, voted 5-4 to uphold a lower court ruling requiring the administration to make payments on contracts which have already been completed.

TRUMP has launched a campaign led by his top donor ELON MUSK, the world’s richest person, to downsize or dismantle swaths of the United States government.

The most concentrated fire has been on USAID, the primary organization for distributing US humanitarian aid around the world with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries.