President Donald Trump formally declined a request from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to declare Minneapolis a federal disaster zone in the wake of the George Floyd race riots on Saturday, preventing the city’s Democratic governor and mayor from bilking the taxpayer for bailout funds to repair the damage they tacitly allowed through refusal to halt the riots.

Walz’s office confirmed that the White House had refused his request for an emergency declaration on Saturday in a press release, explaining that the governor had hoped the federal government would clean up the mess.

“The Governor is disappointed that the federal government declined his request for financial support,” said a spokesperson in a statement. “As we navigate one of the most difficult periods in our state’s history, we look for support from our federal government to help us through.”

The rioting in Minneapolis may have been among the most destructive ever to occur in the United States, devastating the community, causing what some estimate to be $500 million in damages to property, and damaging more than 500 buildings. Many Americans probably wouldn’t know it, as the corporate media has largely focused on promoting the activities of the rioters, falsely describing them as peaceful protestors, allowing the model of community destruction to be exported to other American communities.

Both Governor Walz and neoliberal Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had waited fecklessly to deploy the Minnesota National Guard to contain the dangerous situation, hoping to appease the raging mob as the rioters torched a Minneapolis police precinct and destroyed countless small businesses in the city’s downtown area.

At the very least, the state’s Democratic officials won’t be rewarded with a hefty federal bailout as a result of their own irresponsibility and political fecklessness in refusing to crack down on criminal rioters. Sadly, it’ll be members of the Minneapolis community who pay for the cowardice of their local officials, and the once-serene upper-class community may never recover, instead morphing into a dilapidated shell of its former self.