Trump’s Washington is Ghosting States and Cities

The long-standing, stable partnership among local, state, and federal governments is dead. From withholding  funding from states to deploying troops to cities over the objections of mayors and governors, the unpredictability of Donald Trump’s administration didn’t help the GOP in this month’s off-year elections. And looming cuts to Medicaid and Head Start, along with the deliberate refusal to fund SNAP benefits during the government shutdown, suggest that the administration will continue to abandon traditional federal partnerships. While Democratic states and municipalities clearly bear the brunt of federal lapses, recent decisions to auction oil leases in Alaska and Florida over the objections of Republican lawmakers from those places demonstrate the broad ways in which Washington is now ingraining capriciousness into many federal policies.  

So, the newly elected leaders of New Jersey, Virginia, New York City, and others face a frayed relationship with the federal government—and need a blueprint for moving forward. The urgency of the moment was on full display in the extraordinary meeting between Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s mayor-elect, and the 47th president last week, in which the 34-year-old democratic socialist was eager to make sure the 79-year-old Republican president kept the federal spigot open to the president’s hometown.