The withdrawal of the federal freeze was a stunning about-face for President Donald Trump’s White House, which has so far pushed the envelope to reshape the federal government, sowing chaos and confusion in firing career civil servants, pausing foreign aid programs and offering federal workers a buyout.

The White House budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing federal grants, according to a copy of a new memo obtained by The Washington Post, after the administration’s move to halt spending earlier this week provoked a backlash.

President Donald Trump is overwhelming the political system in his drive to bend the US government to his will, plunging broad swaths of the federal bureaucracy into chaos while leaving the opposition snowed under by the sheer scope of his efforts.