'A mad scramble': How Trump's tweet on Pakistan aid blindsided US officials

At the time of Trump's tweet, a US assessment of Pakistani compliance with those demands was still underway

A surprise New Year’s Day tweet by President Donald Trump in which he appeared to decree an end to US aid for Pakistan, sent US officials scrambling to suspend security assistance without even knowing how much aid they were freezing, four US officials said.

The decision to freeze up to about $2 billion in security aid, according to a later estimate by US officials, to a nuclear-armed ally is the latest example of how, nearly a year into Trump’s presidency, US officials sometimes have to scurry to turn his tweets into policy.

The Trump administration had been weighing an aid freeze for