President Donald Trump Signs Memo to Defund “Lawless” Democrat Cities of Portland, Seattle, New York and Washington D.C.
Richard Moorhead
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President Donald Trump has ordered a review of federal funding to left-wing Democrat cities that have cut their own police budgets in the wake of surging crime and left-wing riots, with the premise of stripping their federal law enforcement funding entirely should their fail to reverse weak on crime policies.
New York, Seattle, Portland, and Washington D.C. all stand to lose federal subsidies after scaling back their own police and suffering a considerable increase in crime.
“To ensure that Federal funds are neither unduly wasted nor spent in a manner that directly violates our Government’s promise to protect life, liberty, and property, it is imperative that the Federal Government review the use of Federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities.”
The memo requires federal agencies that pay the subsidies to report to the White House Office of Management and Budget on their funding of the cities, and to detail how the local funding can be redirected.
The memo also tasks Attorney General Bill Barr with creating a list of “anarchist jurisdictions” within the country that tacitly permit rioting, property destruction, and various crimes. The municipalities allowing criminal activity will presumably face a loss of funding and sanction from the federal government, as well.
New York City, for example, already gets more than $7 billion in federal subsidies every year for law enforcement purposes, a considerable payment that the city stands to lose as it shrinks its police force and scales back on fighting crime. Murder rates have surged more than 50% in New York in the wake of the coronavirus and the George Floyd race riots, with the city’s government refusing to do much about it.
“My Administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones,” Trump says in the memo, which twice calls out New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio by name.
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