President Donald Trump’s unprecedented announcement that his administration would be withholding $18 billion in federal funds earmarked for New York infrastructure projects has led one Democratic Party candidate to propose a unique response, and one that involves seizing one of Trump’s more than a dozen golf clubs and resorts.
“This is not how the government is supposed to work,” said Katie Brennan, the Democratic nominee for the New Jersey General Assembly, Insider NJ reported. “We pay federal taxes but get a President who sees us as the enemy and takes away our own money as retaliation. This has to stop.”
Trump official Russ Vought, director of the United States Office of Management and Budget, announced Wednesday that the $18 billion in federal funds – funds already approved by Congress to build a new rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City, New York – would be “put on hold” to ensure it was not allocated “based on unconstitutional [diversity, equity and inclusion] principles.”
The timing of the announcement, coming just days after the Trump administration offered Argentina President and Trump ally Javier Milei a $20 billion bailout in a move that has enraged American farmers, didn’t go unnoticed by critics.
“Russ Vought would love nothing more than to tear this country down to its studs,” wrote author and journalist Ryan Grim on X Wednesday in response to Vought’s announcement.
But for Brennan, New Jersey, she argued, was in a unique position to hit back at the Trump administration, and in a way she characterized as personal.
“Yes, New Jersey should sue the Trump administration, but we have to do more. We should be withholding federal taxes, dollar for dollar, to backfill funding that’s illegally cut,” Brennan said.
“The state should also eminent domain Trump’s golf course in Bedminster and build some affordable housing there instead. If the federal government won’t stand up for New Jersey, Trenton should.”
Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, sits 40 miles west of New York City, and was purchased by Trump in 2002 for $35 million. The Bedminster golf club is also the spot of the controversial LIV Golf Invitational Series, an event funded and backed by the Saudi Arabian government that saw Trump’s organization paid a still-unknown sum of money.
For Brennan, however, seizing the golf club was among the only ways to effectively fight back against Trump.
“Donald Trump has shown again and again that he is unfit to lead this country. When he’s not too busy golfing, he’s doing active harm, whether it’s sending masked troops into cities or shutting down vital infrastructure projects like this,” Brennan said.
“These funds were already approved. And if people can’t cross the Hudson to get to work, it will literally destroy our economy. We have to show Trump that this isn’t okay.”
