FIRST THE guillotine’s blade fell. Now the death warrant must be signed. Almost as soon as Donald Trump took office for a second time he began defunding programmes he disliked. But under the constitution only Congress has the right to say how America spends its money. So Mr Trump has sent the legislature a “rescission” package, requesting that it claw back $9.4bn of spending that it had previously approved. If Congress does not pass it by July 18th, the government will be obliged to spend the money. About $1.1bn was earmarked for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which the administration says spreads “radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news’”. The rest was intended to help people around the world through foreign-aid schemes and agencies. The biggest is the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has been mostly shut down and become part of the State Department. The charts below explain the cuts’ effects.