The guy ALWAYS said he liked to use ‘other peoples’ money for his business/personal gains…..
Being President ain’t changing things….
Donald Trump seems to view federal funds like a personal presidential piggy bank.
His warning Tuesday that some furloughed workers may not, as is customary, get back pay when the government shutdown ends was the latest sign that he regards public money sent to Washington by taxpayers and the states as a personal slush fund to spend as he sees fit.
He’s happy to entertain spending on programs he favors — for instance, vast bailouts for farmers routed by his tariffs or rescue plans for friendly global populists like his friend President Javier Milei of Argentina.
But when the bill comes due for things he hates, or for projects important to his political foes, Trump can be remarkably stingy.
In the past, Puerto Rican hurricane victims, Democratic states seeking disaster aid, Californian officials who ignore his forest management advice or “sanctuary cities” that resist his deportations have faced threats to their funding.
And the administration has used the threat and reality of canceled state funding for research to try to force universities such as Harvard and Columbia to submit to its ideological and policy requirements and to end practices it considers “woke,” like diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Trump sees federal cash as a weapon in shutdown fight
Trump’s willingness to use the budget as a weapon has only intensified since the government shut down last week.
First, Trump — who has already enjoyed purging the government bureaucracy under the Department of Government Efficiency in his second term — threatened Democrats with more federal layoffs. “When you shut it down, you have to do layoffs,” the president said last month. This is not true and has never been the case in shutdowns that took place under previous administrations.
On Tuesday, Trump raised the possibility he’d choose which workers got back pay in another attempt to pressure Democrats to vote to reopen the government.
“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” the president told reporters when asked about a memo first reported by Axios that suggested furloughed workers need not be paid. He warned of “some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of.” At the weekend, the president vowed one category of federal employees definitely won’t go short — service personnel.
“We will get our service members every last penny,” Trump said at an event in Virginia celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Navy. “Don’t worry about it, it’s all coming,” he added.”
In another attempt to punish Democrats for not voting for a short-term bill to keep government open, the administration threatened to withhold $18 billion in federal funds previously awarded to New York City for two huge infrastructure projects — the Second Avenue subway extension and new Hudson River rail tunnels. It’s no coincidence that the two top Democrats in Congress, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, represent New York. The White House also froze almost $8 billion for climate projects in 16 states, all but two of which have Democratic governors.
So how does the White House justify what appears to be blatant politicization of federal cash?….
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Trump’s inclination to ride roughshod over Congress’ power to dictate how federal revenue is spent was also evident Tuesday when the administration announced a plan to use proceeds from Trump’s tariffs to pay for a federal food assistance program for nearly 7 million pregnant women, new moms and young children while the government is closed. “The problem isn’t that they don’t have the money — it’s that Congress hasn’t told them they can spend it,”…
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In business and in life, Trump has tended to view every personal and professional encounter as a contest, a chance to impose his own strength over weaker interlocutors. He often casts around for any leverage at his disposal to wrong-foot an opponent. This is always on display in his televised encounters with Cabinet members and even foreign leaders. On Tuesday, for example, Trump’s meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carneywent well, given the bad blood that the president has stirred with America’s great friend and northern neighbor. But he couldn’t resist joking about his claims, which infuriated Canadians, that they should join the US as the 51st state.
And the president’s first impeachment, in his first term, was triggered by his attempts to use weapons financed by Congress to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing an investigation into future president Joe Biden and his family.
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