WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued a memo Wednesday to direct federal officials to find ways to cut funding from cities, controlled by Democrats, with ongoing violence and protests.
The memo, sent to Attorney General William Barr and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, claimed that cities including Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; New York City, New York; and Washington, D.C. have "allowed themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones."
Pressing his "law and order" campaign message, the president's memo directs Vought to conduct a full review of the use of federal funds to the cities that the president claims "permit anarchy, violence, and destruction." It also asks to issue guidance in the next month on how to restrict federal grants.
The five-page memo also instructs Barr to develop a list of jurisdictions in 14 days that “permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract these criminal activities.”
"Without law and order, democracy cannot function," the memo reads. "Americans cannot exercise their rights, including their rights to peaceful expression, assembly, and protest. Property is destroyed, and innocent citizens are injured or killed...For the past few months, several State and local governments have contributed to the violence and destruction in their jurisdictions by failing to enforce the law, disempowering and significantly defunding their police departments, and refusing to accept offers of Federal law enforcement assistance."
The move comes after months of protests across the U.S. against police brutality and racial injustice.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan issued a joint statement about the president's memo on Thursday. It reads:
“Our cities, and the millions of Americans who we represent, are not President Trump’s political pawns. We are confronting unprecedented challenges—fighting back a pandemic and economic devastation without another stimulus. Now, instead of leadership from the White House, we are faced with new attacks that are unlawful, unconstitutional and will be undoubtedly defeated in court. President Trump needs to wake up to the reality facing our cities—and our entire country—and realize he is not above the law.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo described the president's threat to cut federal funding as "another attempt to kill New York City,” according to the New York Times.
"The best thing he did for New York City was leave. Good riddance. Let him go to Florida. Be careful not to get Covid,” Cuomo added. "It’s cheap, it’s political, it’s gratuitous, and it’s illegal... [Trump] better have an army if he thinks he’s going to walk down the street in New York.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted that Trump, "continues to believe that disenfranchising people living in this country to advance his petty grudges is an effective political strategy. The rest of us know it is dangerous, destructive, and divisive."
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a tweet that the document was “an attempt to distract” from the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 185,000 people in the United States, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
During an event in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump described the protests generally as “violent mobs here at home” that must be met with a strong show of force. “These people know one thing: strength,” he said. If local leaders would ask for federal muscle, Trump said, “We’ll have it done in one hour.”
He later tweeted, “My Administration will do everything in its power to prevent weak mayors and lawless cities from taking Federal dollars while they let anarchists harm people, burn buildings, and ruin lives and businesses.”