Trump is stepping up his fight for equity by using the shutdown

As the federal government shutdown enters its second week, President Donald Trump is aiming to cut federal funding to Democratic states and cities by nearly $30 billion. Cuts to energy projects, public transportation, and essential civil rights initiatives could have a profound negative impact on the economy and the country as a whole.

The cuts follow Trump’s executive orders that aim to eliminate policies that promote gender and racial equity, address the climate crisis, and endanger the fossil fuel sector.

Republicans have sent members of the House home until at least October 14, while Democrats are refusing to make any compromises to reduce health care costs. Nearly 90% of the Environmental Protection Agency is among the 750,000 government employees who have been placed on furlough as a result of the shutdown, which has also shut down services and programs that Americans depend on. Trump is taking great pleasure in the shutdown rather than attempting to end it. Trump is using the shutdown as an “unprecedented opportunity” to avenge his alleged adversaries and accuse Democrats of causing painful cuts to government jobs and programs that he has long opposed.

Almost $8 billion for energy projects in more than a dozen states nationwide; core civil rights programs that provide equity in federal contracting; and more than $20 billion for public transportation expansions in Chicago, New York City, and the Hudson River Rail Tunnel between New York and New Jersey, which would affect hundreds of thousands of rail travelers throughout the Eastern Seaboard, are all immediately in jeopardy.

Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, wrote, “Even the trains won’t run on time in Donald Trump’s authoritarian America.”.

The front-runner in the upcoming mayoral election in New York, Democrat Zohran Mamdani, blasted “Trump and his sycophants” for treating people like “political pawns” and for taking actions that will have a grave impact on their lives and means of subsistence. According to Mamdani, “this is about Donald Trump going to war with New York City.”.

editor’s selections.

Critics caution that rescinding these funds would probably lead to the loss of thousands of jobs and increased energy and transportation costs. When compared to driving, increased access to public transportation can save people over $13,000 annually. Household electricity bills are soaring nationwide, but the administration plans to axe hundreds of initiatives and programs that aim to lower costs, improve equity, and expand energy supply.

The Laborers’ International Union of North America, whose members are affected by the project cuts, is led by General President Brent Booker. Booker issued a statement accusing the White House and Republican members of Congress of engaging in bad faith negotiations and endangering vital services that Americans depend on on a daily basis. He described the infrastructure and energy cuts as “scorched earth style retaliation,” adding that “these project cancellations are an immediate and dire threat to our economy and the livelihoods of thousands of construction workers.”. “.”.

Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said, “The health implications are really significant.”. explains to me. According to her, clean energy and transportation reduce pollution and the carbon footprint while also protecting the climate and public health. She was elected as the first Latina woman to represent Arizona on September 23, but she has yet to be sworn in as a member of Congress by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. “These projects were already authorized” by Congress, she says, but Trump “doesn’t like what city they’re in,” so they were cut off without warning. “”.

Relevant Content.

Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page blueprint for a second Trump term, was co-authored by Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, who is making the cuts. Echoing the Department of Energy’s explanation, Vought on X said that the nearly $8 billion in energy project cuts were canceling “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda.”. In order to justify the infrastructure cuts, the Department of Transportation claimed that New York and Illinois are “well known to promote race-and sex-based contracting and other racial preferences as a public policy.”. “.”.

Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin of Georgetown University’s Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy tells me that the Trump administration is working harder than any previous administration to undermine civil rights laws created to advance the goal of equality in the US. In addition to being a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, Goodwin serves as co-faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Goodwin continued, “courts across the country, including conservative judges, even Trump-appointed judges, have said overwhelmingly that what he has been doing has been unlawful and unconstitutional” on a number of different issues. There is a great deal of winning happening. “”.

However, the president’s increasingly authoritarian actions, illegality, and usurpation of congressional authority—particularly the power of the purse—have been met with resistance from Republicans who control both chambers of Congress. Vought wrote the Project 2025 section that addressed the extension of executive and presidential authority. He carried out his agenda primarily in the background during the first few months of Trump’s presidency, but he is now taking center stage and playing a key part in the government shutdown.

On social media, Trump bragged about Vought’s intention to use the shutdown to dismantle “Democratic Agencies.”. Later, he shared an AI-generated video of a cover of Blue Öyster Cult in which Vought played the role of “The Reaper,” or death incarnate, dressed in full black robes, holding a scythe, and aiming at federal employees and congressional Democrats seated at their desks.

“Briss and Nude Corruption.”.

Vought announced on social media on the first day of the government shutdown that nearly $8 billion would be cut from energy projects in Democratic states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.

Murphy, Senator Chris (D-Conn. referred to the action as “blatant, bare corruption.”. every state with a Democratic senatorial representative. It’s time for us to get tough and insist that we only support governments that uphold the law. Some have noted that all of these states supported Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the 2024 presidential election.

According to a New York Times analysis, the projects that are impacted include significant electrical grid upgrades in California, Minnesota, and Oregon; initiatives to minimize methane emissions from oil and gas operations in Colorado; and sizable hubs for the production of hydrogen fuels in California and the Pacific Northwest. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, New Mexico lost $135.2 million for ten energy projects that would have improved energy access and service throughout the state by using battery storage microgrids and renewable energy. According to Hawaii Public Radio, the state lost about $68 million on renewable energy microgrids, zero-emission cars, and electrical grid reliability at the U.S. S. Pearl Harbor Hickam is a Joint Air Force and Naval Base.

Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, said, “Director Vought’s attack is blatant and vindictive, and it will result in job losses and increased energy expenses for Americans nationwide.”. (in a declaration).

Within a few hours of the shutdown, Vought announced on X that more than $18 billion would be cut from public transit infrastructure projects in New Jersey and New York, two Democratic strongholds. Two days later, he announced another cut of more than $2 billion from public transit projects in Chicago.

In addition to a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, which will impact travel between Boston and Washington, the $18 billion will support the expansion of the Second Avenue Subway line in New York City, which currently transports hundreds of thousands of passengers every day on Amtrak and commuter trains.

Through the addition of four new train stops on the South Side, the $21 billion will help Chicago modernize and upgrade its public transportation system, enhancing access for low-income and communities of color.

Trump abruptly stopped providing funding just as we were about to proceed. In a statement released on October 3, Brandon Johnson, the Democratic mayor of Chicago, said, “This president is cutting the services that working people rely upon, from public safety to public education to public transit.”.

Chicago’s funding cuts coincide with Trump’s increasingly extensive and widespread attacks on the city’s citizens and Democratic leadership. In addition to deploying the Texas National Guard and ICE, Trump has stated on social media that Johnson and the state’s governor ought to be imprisoned “for failing to protect ICE Officers.”. Johnson cautioned on CNN on Wednesday that Trump is “unstable, unhinged,” and “a threat to our democracy.” This is not the first time that Trump has called for the unjust arrest of a Black man, Johnson added. “.”.

The actual world.

Secretary Sean Duffy of the Department of Transportation is carrying out Trump and Vought’s assault on federal civil rights law and public infrastructure in Democratic states and cities. Duffy is a Fox News host and former congressman who leans far right and has little experience with public transit. According to his White House biography, he is one half of “America’s first and longest-married reality TV couple,” mentioning his 25-year marriage and nine children with Rachel Campos-Duffy. He also boasts about his reality TV show props on MTV’s The Real World and Road Rules All Stars.

In May, Duffy assured Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York during a Senate hearing that he would not revoke federal grants already granted for the two New York projects. “I don’t have any plans to cancel those grant agreements,” he stated.

As a climate skeptic, Duffy voted against environmental and climate action whenever he had the chance while serving in Congress. He despises public transportation, calling it “dirty,” “homeless shelters,” and “insane asylums” that are populated by “criminals” who “prey upon the good people.”. “.”.

Bike, pedestrian, and public transportation lanes were criticized by Duffy and host Larry Kudlow in a May Fox News interview, despite a wealth of evidence showing that physical (walking, biking) and social (public transportation) commutes are healthier and happier than driving, save money, and lower harmful air pollution. The nation’s biggest source of carbon emissions is transportation. Since Black and Hispanic workers are almost three times more likely than white workers to use public transportation, public transit policy can be used to promote social justice and equity.

According to Deborah Archer, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, transportation infrastructure has long been utilized “as a powerful tool to enforce white supremacy” in an interview with W. earlier this year, Kamau Bell. Archer is the author of Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality and the associate dean of the New York University School of Law. According to her, “Black people must understand and maintain their ‘place’ in a social hierarchy for white supremacy to exist.”.

Archer recently wrote in Rolling Stone, “Brown neighborhoods in cities are still isolated from jobs and essential services due to failing public transit.”. Additionally, Black communities continue to be left vulnerable, unprotected, and forgotten as climate change exacerbates heat waves, floods, and storms. “”.

According to Michele Roberts, national co-coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance, “when the Biden-Harris administration came in, they did not just create plans in a vacuum, they went and listened to people in the community” to find out what projects were needed, “and financing flowed from those discussions.”. Projects to address historical and current environmental racism and injustices, as well as the ensuing disproportionate economic and health burdens on Black and Brown communities, were part of the programs.

Days after taking office, Duffy issued a number of memos calling for the elimination of all Department of Transportation initiatives that are “related in any way to climate change, ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions, racial equity, gender identity, ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ goals, environmental justice, or the Justice 40 initiative.” These actions include rules, regulations, policies, and funding agreements. He then put a stop to project funding while the agency looked into grants related to these violations.

An interim final rule “barring race-and-sex-based contracting requirements from federal grants” was released by Duffy last week. In order to address systemic disparities in government infrastructure contracting that have discriminated against small businesses owned by women and people of color, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program has had bipartisan congressional support for over 40 years. This program is the target of the order. The agency announced the transit cuts to Chicago and New York just a few days after the rule was issued. Now, communities nationwide are preparing for additional cuts.

“Now this gets to be vetted before court, but for decades the federal government has engaged in contracting that is sex- and race-based, acknowledging that providing opportunities to those that were previously excluded” is a necessary condition of trying to “level that playing field that has been 400 years of cheating,” according to Georgetown professor Goodwin, who claims the rule is unlawful. Fortunately, you now have some bidding power,” she continues. “”.

Citing a wealth of data from the Department of Labor and other agencies about historical and current barriers to entry faced by women and minority business owners vying for federal contracts, a coalition of businesses representing women and minority owners has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. “This program was never about handouts — it’s about fair access,” says Atlantic Meridian Contracting Corporation’s Black CEO, Ken Canty, in a statement. We deserve our position, and the court has already acknowledged that we ought to be permitted to defend it. “.”.

Access is a problem for workers in the construction industry as well as small businesses. According to an analysis by the National Partnership for Women and Families, racism, sexism, and discrimination are major factors that prevent women workers, especially women of color, from obtaining good jobs “that pay well, offer quality benefits, and support workers’ right to come together in unions.”. Women workers have thus been underrepresented in sectors of the economy that receive federal infrastructure funding.

Looking for Skilled White Men.

In August, Vought shared a Department of Labor social media post that featured a young, white male worker wearing a hardhat with the caption, “Make America Skilled Again.”. “”.

Just some federal preferences are opposed by the Trump administration, not all of them. Duffy, for instance, issued an order in January instructing the Department of Transportation “to give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.”. “.”.

Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, described it as “disturbingly dystopian.”. “.”.

The order has a direct connection to Duffy and the administration’s purge of diversity initiatives, according to Goodwin. She claims that it is a pronatalist administration that targets white women specifically. Pronatalism is the term used to describe laws intended to encourage married women to have more children and stay at home. Along with Vought and Vice President J., Duffy is listed by the National Women’s Law Center. A. Vance as a member of the “Pronatalist Army of Trump.”. Additionally, Goodwin states that the Trump administration “does not see all Americans as equal.”. More Latino Americans are not something it is interested in. More white Americans are of interest to it, but more black Americans are not. “.”.

It’s important to note that the replacement theory idea that the Confederacy advanced in the nineteenth century has been practically reproduced in the present, according to Goodwin. A “mass populating of Black people” that would overrun the country and the government and “take away power from white people” was the fear held by some that the abolition of slavery would bring about. Additionally, in response to this illogical racist fear, the notion that “white women needed to spread their loins” and have children was promoted. “Here we are once more,” Goodwin remarks.

The Trump administration is “really striking at anything and everything that has to some extent or another provided opportunities to historically marginalized groups, specifically by race and gender,” according to labor economist Valerie Wilson, who also notes that racism and sexism are particularly costly. “.”.

Wilson oversees the Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute. Reducing discrimination benefits everyone monetarily, according to her research. Wilson extrapolated from a previous study that showed that, between 1960 and 2010, the GDP increased by nearly 8% per capita due to a decline in occupational barriers for Black men and women compared to white men. Wilson concluded that, through 2024, the benefit of less discrimination will exceed $4,932 per person.

According to Wilson, the U. S. Now that the economy may be on the verge of a recession, Trump’s current policies will make recovery much more challenging and uneven.

Stories that are trending.

Trump has made it apparent that he doesn’t give a damn about any unfair consequences that may result from the government shutdown. Trump faced questions about a White House memo that threatened to withhold backpay to hundreds of thousands of federal employees who were placed on furlough, which Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has described as “illegal and morally corrupt,” as he dispatched National Guard troops into Democratic cities across the nation.

Trump declared, “We’re going to look out for our people.”. We will provide care for those who truly don’t deserve it in a different manner. “.”.