Trump’s deference to local authorities has not extended far beyond Covid-related decisions. On issues that Trump and his allies believe will underscore the suburb-friendly messages that have characterized his latest political message, from cracking down on the protests to forcing schools to reopen, the White House has pushed for a level of federal intervention. They have yet to materialize in your coronavirus response.
“I want people to have some freedom,” Trump said on “Fox News Sunday” last weekend as he explained his refusal to issue a national order for people to wear masks in public. “But I leave it to the governors.”
Three days later, Trump was standing in the East Room announcing a “surge” of federal law enforcement officers to cities and states that did not want aid, underscoring the contradictory ways in which he has wielded power during the crisis more deep of his presidency.
And on Thursday, Trump hinted that he could “do something much stronger than being invited” if local officials tried to stop federal agents from operating in their cities. In an interview with Fox News, Trump even suggested that he could send up to 75,000 federal agents.
Some Trump allies had been pressing the White House to take more concrete steps to strengthen Trump’s “law and order” message, which they believe will work well with suburban voters who have fled the Trump camp since 2016.
A campaign adviser said Trump’s aides and allies see a political advantage in sending federal forces to Democrat-led cities to quell rebel protests and combat violent crime. On the volatile situation in Oregon, for example, Trump’s adviser predicted that voters will increasingly point to the governor and mayor of Portland.
“People blame the mayor and the governor and (former Vice President Joe) Biden’s inability to stand up to his supporters doing this,” the adviser said.
“Trump is seeing this,” the adviser continued, adding that the president is taking the opportunity “to speak about law and order.”
But not all Republicans agree that Trump’s push to override the wishes of state and local leaders will help him dabble with the undecided voters he needs to win: the college-educated suburban voters who turned to Democrats in the election. partials of 2018.
Criminal enforcement is “great for the 40% (of voters) they already have,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican consultant and strategist. “Making that his final argument when everything is upside down and the campaign is falling apart means he has lost the plot.”
Leading from behind at Covid
The top-down approach to Trump’s discomfort stands in stark contrast to the unusual deference he has given to local authorities during the pandemic, when pressure on him to issue national decrees that could help contain the virus has been high.
As infections first swept the country in March and April, Trump resisted calls to impose a federal stay-at-home order, insisting that state and local officials must make the call to order his residents sheltering in place.
But in mid-May, Trump was encouraging general reopens and had already called for specific states, including Virginia, Minnesota and Michigan, led by Democrats, to “free” people by lifting the restrictions.
Trump’s efforts to encourage the use of masks have been equally independent. He himself has worn a mask in public on only one occasion, and has repeatedly referred local officials for decisions on whether facial coatings are mandatory. Although he filed a possible order to wear masks for people in federal buildings, the White House did not announce one within 24 hours that it provided.
An administration official played down any contradiction in Trump’s use of federal authority in the pandemic and in the fight against violent crime. The official argued that different states have different needs when it comes to the virus, which is why the President has prevented the federal government from imposing orders, but said that all federal properties should be protected.
The administration has used the protection of federal buildings as a legal justification to invite federal law enforcement to some cities.
Pushing political victories
The president has spent weeks concentrating on issues that have little to do with the virus, although this week he brought back his personal press conferences in primetime as cases continue to rise. At Friday’s daily press conference, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany began her appearance by highlighting incidents of violence against the police by some protesters, not an update on fighting the virus.
And the administration has aggressively pushed for measures that encourage schools to reopen classrooms in the fall despite increasing case counts in states across the country, with Trump even threatening to withhold funds from non-compliant schools, an authority that actually does not have.
Instead, Trump announced Thursday that the White House would ask Congress for $ 105 billion in funds that only schools that will reopen could access directly. In districts where schools remain closed, Trump said the money would go to parents, who could then make decisions about alternative arrangements like private school if they so choose.
The move was an acknowledgment by Trump that infection rates have risen enough in some places to require the continued closure of schools. But it also set the stage for districts that cannot safely reopen to suffer relative to districts where classrooms have the ability to reopen in the fall.
But a similar incentive involving federal funds has not yet been offered to states or cities that comply with other administration recommendations, such as mask wear and social distancing guidelines.
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