President Donald Trump explicitly said his administration had been cutting and would continue to cut “popular Democrat programs” during the ongoing government shutdown, an admission that his administration was wielding its power to punish his opponents.
“We’re only going to cut Democrat programs,” Trump said Thursday at a televised Cabinet meeting. “I hate to tell you, I guess that makes sense, but we’re only cutting Democrat programs. … We’ll be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly, because that’s the way it works.”
The president did not share his definition of “Democrat programs,” but Trump and his allies have repeatedly suggested they’ll inflict pain on Democrats over their votes against government funding. Last week, the administration sought to strip billions of dollars’ worth of energy programs from Democratic-led states while leaving similar ones intact in Republican-led states.