The Trump administration has frozen $2.1 billion in federal transit funding for Chicago. Trump has now frozen at least $28 billion in funding for Democratic cities and states. Only Democratic cities and states, eh? Sounds like retaliation to me.
Reuters reports:
President Donald Trump’s administration froze $2.1 billion in Chicago transit funding on Friday, starving another Democratic city of funds as a bid to end the government shutdown failed again in the Senate.
On the shutdown’s third day, Trump ramped up pressure on Democrats to end the standoff and agree to a Republican plan that would restore government funding. But that failed in a 54-44 Senate vote, short of the chamber’s 60-vote standard.
The administration has now frozen at least $28 billion in funding for Democratic cities and states, escalating Trump’s campaign to use the extraordinary power of the U.S. government to punish political rivals. Budget director Russ Vought said the Chicago money, earmarked for elevated train lines, had been put on hold to ensure it was not “flowing via race-based contracting.”
Vought is the architect of Project 2025, something Trump claimed on the campaign trail to not know anything about. Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said the funding freeze amounted to hostage-taking.
