In a memo released Wednesday, Donald Trump directed his administration to slash funding to cities led by Democrats—his most outrageous broadside yet against America’s urban centers, which he’s painted as dystopias amid the national unrest over systemic racism and police brutality. “Unfortunately, anarchy has recently beset some of our States and cities,” he said in a memo released Wednesday. “My Administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones.”
In the order, Trump demanded that Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and William Barr, the attorney general, guide federal agencies to restrict billions in funding for so-called “anarchist jurisdictions” like New York and Portland, which he claims have “permitted violence and the destruction of property.” “Without law and order,” he said, alluding to the campaign mantra he’s repeated ad nauseum in the final months of his reelection race, “democracy cannot function.”
The move is itself, of course, anti-democratic—an election year stunt aimed at punishing Democrats, and, by proxy, millions of their constituents, and ratcheting up racial fears among his white base. Indeed, he’s fanned the flames of turmoil across the country, highlighted the violence and vandalism that has erupted at some of the demonstrations, and warned—in shockingly overt appeals to the bigotries of white voters—that the unrest could spread into suburbs if he isn’t reelected. “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” went one recent ad aimed at scaring the everlasting shit out of older voters.
Biden and his allies have helpfully pointed out that the tumult he’s warning Democrats would usher in is actually occurring under his watch, right now. “Donald Trump keeps telling us if he was president, you’d feel safe,” Biden tweeted recently. “Well, he is president—whether he knows it or not.” That’s true, but Trumpworld has attempted to circle the square by shifting the blame to Democratic governors and mayors. It’s not that new instances of police violence against Black Americans keep cropping up, or that the president has openly sought to escalate tensions rather than relieve them—it’s Biden’s fault for wanting to defund police departments, though he doesn’t, and that of local leaders for taking too permissive an attitude toward these supposed anarchists.
The local responses to this summer’s unrest can certainly be scrutinized. Some, like Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, have drawn the fury of protesters for raising downtown bridges, banning protests near her northwest side home, and defending the city’s at-times aggressive response to downtown tumult. Others, like Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, have been criticized and even faced lawsuits for the latitude they’ve shown. But Trump’s directive Wednesday isn’t about that—it’s about punishing Blue America, stoking fears about Black Lives Matter protesters, and making a grand show of his “law and order” presidency—even though he personally disregards the law and threatens the peaceful order of things in the United States more than just about anyone. “It’s cheap, it’s political, it’s gratuitous, and it’s illegal,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said of Trump’s memo.
Indeed, while Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has insisted that “most of Donald Trump’s America is peaceful,” the president has egged on or excused those who have committed shocking acts of violence, like Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teen who allegedly killed two in Kenosha late last month as protests raged there after police shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back seven times. Conservative media figures like Tucker Carlson defended the alleged Kenosha shooter; Rittenhouse’s lawyer likened him to the heroes of the American Revolution; and Trump rationalized the 17-year-old’s actions. “He was trying to get away from them, I guess, looks like. And he fell and then they very violently attacked him and it was something that we’re looking at right now, and it’s under investigation,” Trump said of Rittenhouse, adding that “I guess he was in very big trouble” and “probably would have been killed.”