As America passes six million COVID-19 cases and more than 185,000 deaths from the uncontrolled pandemic, President Donald Trump continued to focus his energy on portraying Democratic cities as lawless, "anarchist" jurisdictions—signing a legally dubious executive action that would begin the process of taking away funds from NYC and three other cities on Wednesday.
In the memorandum, the federal government would begin identifying federal funds to "withhold" from Democratic cities where the president claims "local politicians have permitted anarchy and violence to abound." The executive action is intended to ensure "hard-earned taxpayer dollars are not wasted by lawless governors and mayors," according to the White House.
The announcement continues Trump's desperate re-election campaign as the "law and order" candidate. It comes after months of mostly peaceful protests nationwide against racist police brutality, which the president has sought to characterize as only riots and looting. (NYC saw two nights of significant looting. NYPD data shows a majority of detainments were for low-level offenses like breaking a curfew.)
In the memo and a press release about the executive action, the White House cited a rise in shootings in NYC as well as the police funds reductions during budget negotiations this summer. The funds actually fell short of what activists called for, and amounted to an overtime cap, cancellation of two police academy classes, and moving school safety agents to another agency. Additionally, shootings have risen in cities across the country.
In addition to NYC, the president also plans to defund Portland, Seattle, and Washington D.C. The four mayors said in a joint statement the "attacks" are "unlawful, unconstitutional and will be undoubtedly defeated in court."
Withholding such federal funds would come as NYC faces a fiscal crisis not seen in decades as the city attempts to recover after the peak of COVID-19—when hundreds of people were dying per day in NYC while Trump refused to use executive powers to rollout badly needed personal protective equipment and ventilators to keep mostly essential workers and elderly people from death.
During a Wednesday evening press call, Governor Andrew Cuomo slammed Trump for the memo. Trump "has been actively trying to kill New York City ever since he's been elected," Cuomo said, from blocking funds for the Second Avenue subway and the AirTrain to stonewalling congestion pricing and removing the ability to deduct certain state and local taxes.
"He can't have enough bodyguards to walk through New York City," Cuomo said during the call, according to news reports. "Forget bodyguards, he better have an army if he thinks he’s going to walk down the streets in New York."
At the end of the call, he later clarified: "He is persona non grata in New York City, and I think he knows that, and he'll never come back to New York, because New Yorkers will never forget how gratuitously mean he has been."
"Good riddance. Let him go to Florida. Be careful not to get COVID," Cuomo added, blaming Trump's "negligence" for the drastic rise in coronavirus cases in New York. "He is the cause of COVID in New York."
Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened legal action against the president's action.
"If you persist in trying to deny the funding that's keeping New York City going in the middle of this crisis, we will see you in court, and once again, we will beat you in court," de Blasio said during a news conference on Thursday.
Mayoral spokesperson Bill Neidhardt said in a tweet, "This has nothing to do with 'law and order'. This is a racist campaign stunt out of the Oval Office to attack millions of people of color."
The memo—which is already facing legal threats should Trump follow through—directs the federal OMB and other agencies to file a report detailing federal funds provided to what it determines to be "anarchist jurisdictions." It also directs the U.S. Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Director of the OMB to identify cities "that have permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract these criminal activities."
A former senior Office of Management and Budget official during the Obama administration, Sam Berger, told the Washington Post: "This is a campaign document coming out of the White House."
"Any actual restriction on funding in court will immediately be sued and almost certainly struck down," Berger told the newspaper.
