A U.S. judge on Tuesday extended an order blocking President Donald Trump's administration from instituting a sweeping freeze on trillions of dollars in federal funding by pausing grants, loans and other financial support.

Companies that get federal grants or loans usually sign a legally binding agreement and depend on getting reimbursed. The new administration has upended that expectation.

A federal judge on Friday seemed likely to extend his earlier block on the Trump administration's freeze on federal grants and other financial assistance, suggesting the broad initiative was beyond the powers of federal agencies.

The states told U.S. District Court Chief Judge John McConnell Jr., that the Trump Administration’s threat to freeze trillions of dollars of grants and loans budgeted to fund everything from homelessness to health care. In some cases, even a delay of hours or days, the lawyers said, would cause “irreparable harm” to communities.

The top judge in the United States has given temporary backing to the Trump administration's freeze on foreign aid payments. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' intervention came as the administration faced a midnight deadline (05:00 GMT on Thursday) to pay contractors.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday paused a federal judge's order requiring President Donald Trump's administration to pay foreign aid funds to contractors and grant recipients for past work.

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court Wednesday night to lift a judge’s order requiring the federal government to pay nearly $2 billion in unpaid invoices from foreign-aid contractors in a matter of hours.