Trump is saying, essentially, “If you don’t want to get hurt, you’ll do what I say“.
Illustration by Paul Spella
The Sunday before the New York City mayoral race, President Donald Trump told New Yorkers he might withhold federal funding if Zohran Mamdani won.
“It’s gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York, because if you have a Communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there,” Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes.
Mamdani responded to Trump’s threat of extortion – vote for my preferred candidate or else – by pointing out that said federal funding was not Trump’s to give. “This funding is not something that Donald Trump is giving us here in New York City,” Mamdani said. “This is something that we are, in fact, owed in New York.”
It was not the first time Trump had treated federal funds as his personal property that he could use to extort political opponents or reward political allies. Trump has approved disaster aid for red states and denied it to blue states. In the midst of the government-shutdown fight with Democrats, he is refusing to disburse rainy-day funds for food stamps, saying (falsely) that the lapse will hurt “largely Democrats.” The Trump administration has cut funding for projects in states with Democratic majorities. It is withholding federal funding from colleges and universities that do not submit to ideological control by the federal government over whom they hire, what they teach, and what sort of students they admit, and rewarding those that comply.
Written by Adam Serwer for The Atlantic ~ November 8, 2025
Those who sow the wind ought to remember that they may reap the whirlwind. The political left, which is to say the Democrats, have been weaponizing government against ordinary Americans for decades. This not only took the form of monetary and other rewards to supporters, but punishments of various kinds directed against opponents.
In the wake of Hurricane Helene, the Biden regime and FEMA withheld federal disaster relief from W. North Carolina and E. Tennessee. Why? Because those areas are in the heart of the “Bible Belt” and also almost never vote Democrat. They’re rural southerners, the very people the left claims to hate. We’re not talking delays of hours or days; we’re talking about critically needed food, water and other disaster relief being withheld for weeks, or never arriving at all.
Observers reported that some FEMA units finally arrived, but promptly set up shop and did nothing but look at their phones and play video games.
When private sources of aid began trying to fill the gap, government personnel shooed them off. Multiple helicopters bearing supplies were refused permission to land.
Know who finally came to the aid of the homeless in the disaster-torn area? The Amish, who – at their own time and expense – traveled hundreds of miles to assist and aid the downtrodden. In some cases, building them new homes, and repairing roads. The Amish and other private sources did the job FEMA was supposed to do.
I have never been so outraged at government misconduct in my life. A natural disaster – playing politics with one – is simply beyond the pale.
So, now that the tables have turned the left doesn’t like it. Well, too bad. You made this bed of yours, now lie in it!