NYC no longer an ‘anarchist’ city after Biden scraps controversial Trump order
So long, city of anarchy.
President Biden late Wednesday rescinded a controversial order from his predecessor that labeled New York an “anarchist jurisdiction” in a dubious attempt to strip the city of federal funding.
Without further explanation, the White House said in a statement that Biden had rolled back former President Donald Trump’s Sept. 20 order, which directed federal agencies to review all grants and funds for New York because the city was supposedly “permitting anarchy, violence and destruction.”
The reversal came hours after a reporter asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki if Biden planned to scrap the Trump order.
“We are a new administration. We, of course, are reviewing a range of policies and charting our own path,” Psaki said.
It’s unclear if Trump’s order, which also targeted Seattle and Portland, Ore., had any tangible impact.
When it was announced, then-Attorney General William Barr said Trump wanted to punish the Democrat-run cities in retaliation for their leaders refusing to let the administration send in National Guard troops to crack down on at times violent racial justice protests.
“It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens,” Barr said at the time.
Though the Trump order called on federal agencies to defund the cities, Congress controls most such spending, rendering it largely toothless.
Trump was widely ridiculed in the wake of issuing the order, with New Yorkers posting tongue-in-cheek photos on social media about the “horrors” of living in an “anarchist” city.
