Washington DC - Supreme Court Justice John Roberts recently gave President Donald Trump a small win by temporarily pausing a judge's order for the government to release foreign aid.

On Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts paused the midnight deadline for the Trump administration to unfreeze around $2 billion in foreign aid funding.

Last month, Trump signed an order temporarily suspending foreign assistance programs for 90 days pending reviews of their funding.

In response, Federal Judge Amir Ali, who was appointed by Trump's predecessor Joe Biden in November, issued a ruling two weeks ago prohibiting the administration from "suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing" foreign assistance funds and set the midnight deadline.

Donald Trump Trump says US doesn't need Canada's oil – after calling for revival of Keystone XL pipeline plans

Members of Trump's administration raced to the Supreme Court with just a few hours to spare late Wednesday to file an emergency appeal, urging justices to deliver a ruling immediately.

The appeal argued that Judge Ali's ruling has "thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos" and said the government could not "pay arbitrarily determined demands on an arbitrary timeline of the district court's choosing."

The back and forth comes as Trump and his top advisor, Elon Musk, have been heavily criticizing foreign aid organizations, particularly USAID, in recent weeks and have sought to dismantle them.

Roberts, a conservative justice who handles emergency appeals within Washington DC courts, has ordered the plaintiffs in the case to respond by Friday.