Donald Trump Is Trying To Defund The Police To Sabotage Joe Biden’s Administration, Report Says
President Donald Trump is making a last-minute play to defund the police before he leaves office, The American Prospect reported.
The publication noted that the president submitted a formal request to Congress to remove $244 million in local and state law enforcement assistance from a bill he recently signed. In the same bill, he is also trying to slash $4 million from America’s funding of an international coronavirus vaccination effort.
Progressive calls to “defund the police” in the wake of George Floyd’s death were controversial. Some of the more centrist Democrats — including President-elect Joe Biden — avoided using the phrase, while others attributed it to Democratic losses in the House of Representatives, Forbes reported.
According to The American Prospect, Trump’s move to defund the police is part of a broader plan to sabotage Biden’s incoming administration.
“These interesting priorities are part of a last-ditch effort that represents the latest in the Trump administration’s attempts to sabotage the incoming president, in ways large and small, on his way out the door,” the publication wrote.
“This one is easily countermanded, but only if the Biden administration takes action quickly. Otherwise, $27.4 billion in spending, including the above-mentioned items, will be held up for the first month and a half of the Biden presidency.”
Trump’s plan centers around a rescission request, which the publication explained is linked to the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. This legislation allows any head of state to send a list of budget cuts to Congress that could subsequently be passed with just a simple majority vote in both the House and Senate.
“Of course, just because Donald Trump asks for budget cuts doesn’t mean that Congress has to provide them,” the outlet noted.
Nevertheless, the move puts Trump on the side of progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the second time in recent weeks. Earlier, Trump blew up Mitch McConnell’s coronavirus package with $600 stimulus checks and demanded $2,000 checks, placing him on the side of progressive and left-leaning lawmakers — as well as some Republicans.
Trump has been accused of attempting to sabotage Biden’s campaign before. Per PBS NewsHour, Biden’s transition team equated the Trump administration’s last-minute policy announcements to an attempt to stifle the incoming administration. A transition official pointed in particular to the Trump State Department’s decision to designate Houthi rebels in Yemen as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The move comes in the face of pushback from humanitarians who claim that this designation will make it more difficult for Yemeni civilians to received aid.
