Trump’s Power Grab Defies G.O.P. Orthodoxy on Local Control
The New York Times
New York City traffic. California water rules. Middle school sports. Few local policies are outside the reach of Donald J. Trump’s federal government.
In the space of two weeks, President Trump threatened to halt a congestion pricing program intended to reduce traffic in New York City and intervened in California as it confronted ruinous fires, overruling local officials as he made decisions about how to manage the state’s complicated water system.
He signed one executive order cutting off federal aid to elementary and high schools that allow transgender athletes to play in women’s sports, and another intended to end funding to medical institutions that use puberty blockers or hormones in gender-affirming treatments. On Thursday, his administration sued the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois in federal court, claiming that sanctuary laws are obstructing the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration policies.
For decades, the Republican Party, more than the Democratic Party, presented itself as an advocate of federalism, yielding authority and power to state and local governments. But this once-central tenet of Republican thought has seemingly been scrapped, with little debate, as Mr. Trump remakes the Republican Party in his name.
“Republicans believe in federalism, of deferring to the states and the government closest to the people,” said Karl Rove, who was a senior adviser to President George W. Bush. “Not clear how much he shares that view.”
The president’s attempt to dictate actions by the states — particularly the blue states — is the latest instance in which Mr. Trump has scrambled what remains of Republican orthodoxy. He has forced the party to abandon some of its ideological foundations on questions of foreign policy, deficit spending and, increasingly, respecting the rights of states to govern themselves and resist federal intervention.
“Federalism was certainly the orthodoxy in the Republican Party from the 1960s on,” said Max Boot, the author of a recent biography of Ronald Reagan, who as president advocated sending power to the states. “If a Democrat were doing this to red states, Republicans would be screaming bloody murder.”
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In an interview with The New York Post, President Trump said that congestion pricing hurt New York City but indicated that he was still talking with Gov. Kathy Hochul.
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