Cuomo: Trump will need army if he visits NYC

Governor rates president as worst ever for Big Apple

After President Donald Trump moved to slash federal funding from several cities his administration labeled as “anarchist jurisdictions” late Wednesday, New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo shot back saying the commander in chief, was “persona non grata” in their shared hometown.

“He can’t have enough bodyguards to walk through New York City,” Cuomo told reporters during a conference call on Wednesday night. “Forget bodyguards. He better have an army if he thinks he’s going to walk down the streets in New York.”

“From the point of view of New York City, [Trump] has been the worst president,” Cuomo said. “President [Gerald] Ford said drop dead. President Trump has been actively trying to kill New York City ever since he was elected.”

The comments raised so many eyebrows online that a senior adviser to the governor later had to issue a clarification: No, Trump would not literally need protection on the streets of Manhattan, he said. The president had simply abandoned New York, he claimed.

As protests about police brutality and racial injustice have swept across the nation this summer, Trump has repeatedly urged a crackdown on the demonstrations that have many times deteriorated into violence and mayhem.

As The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein reported, the White House’s Wednesday memo signaled his intention to restrict federal funding from places the administration labels “anarchist jurisdictions.”

Trump laid out the directive in a memo, released Wednesday, to Russell Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Attorney General William Barr. It accuses state and local officials of abdicating their duties.

“To ensure that federal funds are neither unduly wasted nor spent in a manner that directly violates our government’s promise to protect life, liberty and property, it is imperative that the federal government review the use of federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities,” the memo said.

The document instructed the Justice Department to identify cities that have allowed “themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones,” including through moves to “defund the police.” The White House highlighted ongoing unrest in four coastal metropolises: Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Among the factors that Barr is to consider in determining such jurisdictions are “whether a jurisdiction forbids the police force from intervening to restore order amid widespread or sustained violence or destruction,” whether a jurisdiction has pulled back law enforcement officials after being prevented access to a certain area and “whether a jurisdiction disempowers or defunds police departments.”

The Democratic leaders of those jurisdictions highlighted by the White House were quick to punch back. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said the document was “an attempt to distract” from the coronavirus pandemic. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler called it “a new low, even for this president,” while a spokesman for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio slammed it as a “racist campaign stunt.”

But no one on Wednesday had harsher words for Trump than Cuomo, who said the president had been “dismissed as a clown” by New York and was now trying to act like a king.

“The best thing he did for New York City,” Cuomo said, “was leave.”

A native of the Jamaica neighborhood in Queens, Trump spent much of his adult life in the five boroughs, eventually climbing to prominence as a real estate scion in the 1980s. After he had stamped his name on skyscrapers around town, Trump was so tied to the city’s reputation that he made a brief cameo in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”

The White House’s Wednesday memo seized on New York’s recent rise on crime. The memo claimed that state and local officials allowed looting to go on for a week and bemoaned a year-over-year surge in shootings. After the New York City Council slashed its $6 billion police budget by about $1 billion, it noted, the agency disbanded some anti-crime units but rejected the White House’s offer to send in federal law enforcement officials.

Cuomo did not address that point on the conference call. In some Trump-Cuomo family feuding, the governor did get personal.

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump had demanded that CNN fire the governor’s brother, Chris Cuomo, over a Fox News report that the TV host has once been accused of sexual harassment. Hours later on the conference call, the governor brought up an audio recording of the president’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, lambasting her brother, that was published by the Post’s Michael Kranish last month.

“Those that know him best like him least. That’s true about New York City, that’s true about his own family,” Cuomo said.

An effort by Trump to curtail funding to so-called sanctuary cities was challenged in court, but a federal appeals court ruled this year that the administration was within its rights to withhold the money.