President Donald Trump announced that he would make significant cuts to counterterrorism in some of the largest terrorist targets in the United States. It's a move that several national security experts are calling Trump's way of "defunding police."
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Trump announced he would shift millions in counterterrorism funds from New York to North Carolina, Indiana and Tennessee.
"So, Donald Trump is defunding the police," said MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace during her discussion with former Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor.
Taylor was previously known as the "Anonymous" writer to the New York Times who flagged concerns from top Trump officials about his mental capacity.
Taylor said that it's an obviously political move trying to "create leverage" with Democratic leaders in blue states.
"But there is something here, Nicolle, about them defunding the police, in perhaps a way that they maybe didn't intend. And to put it another way, I think this is going to blow up in their faces, especially the sheriffs' associations, the police associations. The FBI agents' associations, Michael can speak to some of these as well, start to mobilize. The firefighters' associations, and say, wait a second, this is what allows us to do our jobs."
He recalled working on Capitol Hill and remembering that any time a Tea Party conservative or libertarian-leaning member tried to slash funding to the 9/11 police and firefighters, "they got eaten alive."
Wallace similarly noted, "The men and women of the New York Police Department and the Fire Department of New York are American heroes. Their heroics on 9/11 are part of the fabric of our country's modern history. I wonder why you think that Trump is interested in defunding the police in a manner that seeks to, sort of, erase and rewind the clock on the things that we did to keep our country safe after 9/11."
Wallace called it a defunding of the administrative state and American defenses. She asked Taylor what Trump is thinking when trying to weaken U.S. defenses.
Taylor explained that Trump "never blacked the blue. He backs the 'Brown Shirts.' Donald Trump said he supported law enforcement, but what he meant was I support law enforcement that supports me."
