Donald Trump’s grievance-filled war on Colorado has been well documented in the state media, including the Colorado Sun, and elsewhere.
And now that documentation has gone to court.
On Thursday, a federal judge heard a lawsuit that attempts to block the Trump administration from further gutting the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder.
There are many reasons why Trump might go after the nation’s leading weather lab, starting with its invaluable research — Trump calls it “alarmism” — on climate change. Or maybe for its embrace of DEI policies.
But the lawsuit — brought by the nonprofit that manages NCAR — centers on Trump’s “arbitrary and capricious” punishment of Colorado for refusing to pardon election grifter/denier Tina Peters and for maintaining its gold-standard, mail-in-voting system.
Seeing the revenge-tour timeline laid out in court is a reminder of just how petty Trump can be and how much harm that pettiness can bring. Fortunately, Trump hasn’t gone all Iran on us yet, but give him time. If Peters isn’t released from prison, how long before Trump blockades the Strait of I-70?
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SUBSCRIBEWe can go down just a partial list of Trump’s assaults on the state, not all of them directly related to the lawsuit:
Moving the center of Space Command out of Colorado Springs. Vetoing Lauren Boebert’s bipartisan bill that would have brought clean drinking water to 50,000 people in bright-red Southeastern Colorado. FEMA turning down — for the first time in 35 years — funding assistance for two national emergency requests involving the Lee and Elk fires in Rio Blanco County and flooding in Southwestern Colorado — also in Trump territory. Cutting off or reducing federal funding for a variety of previously funded Colorado social services. And, of course, dismantling NCAR.The list goes on.
As of this writing, Judge R. Brooke Jackson hasn’t ruled, but he has asked why the two sides couldn’t settle this by negotiation. I can answer the judge in just four syllables: Donald J. Trump, whose idea of a negotiation, as he spells out in “The Art of the Deal,” is that he wins everything.
But if the case needs more evidence that Trump’s moves against Colorado are all about revenge, there was a detailed piece in the Washington Post Friday laying out the clearly partisan denial of funds for fire prevention in two states that are among the most endangered for summer wildfires.
I’ll bet you can guess both. That’s right. Colorado and California.
California doesn’t have a Tina Peters-like situation, but it does have Trump nemesis Gavin Newsom — whom Trump calls “Newscum” — as governor. On the other hand, Trump has called Jared Polis a “sleazebag” who should “rot in hell.” And that’s despite the fact Polis has been among the most Trump-accommodating Democratic governors in the country.
As you’ll recall, Trump wanted to end FEMA, but has since changed his mind and instead has plans to reform the agency. But he spent much of last year reducing grants from FEMA, leaving often overwhelmed states to fend for themselves.
According to the Post, Trump, who was under legal pressure, began boosting disaster funding to states last July. In that time, Colorado and California have received next to nothing. The Post found internal documents showing that 20 wildfire-related projects in the West lack funding, most of them — yes —- in California and Colorado.
Does it matter that lives will be lost?
Apparently not.
Does it matter that even some of Trump’s rich friends might lose one or more of their scattered multizillion-dollar properties?
Apparently not.
Trump may want to reduce FEMA funding for all states, but he especially wants them cut, as completely as possible, for at least two states. Former FEMA officials told the Post that it’s basically unprecedented for a president to deny claims from states that aren’t politically aligned with him.
“There’s a pattern — a state like Colorado is repeatedly being denied FEMA aid and others like California are waiting on FEMA money that’s already been approved,” said Debbra Goh, a research assistant at Carnegie Endowment’s Sustainability, Climate and Geopolitics program who has studied the grant data. “Hazard-mitigation funding is designed to help communities prepare for the next disaster. Without it, communities are rebuilding into the same risk.”
Other states on Trump’s list, the Post reports, have seen reduced funding. Since last July, FEMA has sent less than $500,000 to states like Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Minnesota. Red-state Indiana, you’ll remember, blocked Trump’s attempt to gerrymander the state. Red-state Kentucky, you might know, has a Democratic governor.
Meanwhile, over the same period, FEMA has sent $239 million in hazard-mitigation funding to Florida, $131 million to Texas and $117 million to Louisiana.
Money talks, as the saying goes, and federal money sings from the mountaintops — unless those mountains are in California and Colorado, where Colorado is still waiting for approval for funds to clear brush and prepare endangered Colorado homes for wildfires sure to come.
Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Boulder, pulls no punches in blaming Trump for what we might call his fire-prevention gerrymander.
“It’s plain evidence that the president is playing political games with disaster relief,” he told the Post. “I think it is unconscionable.”
Neguse added: “Climate change is a five-alarm fire — literally — for our state. We’ve already had a number of fires, and I anticipate this year could be the most difficult fire season we’ve had in some time. And unfortunately, right now, we find ourselves at a time when the administration has no regard for the communities that it is supposed to serve.”
This war — the one between Trump and Colorado — is definitely far from over. But there is a big battle coming in the midterm elections, an election that those victimized by Trump cannot afford to lose.
And that’s definitely not just alarmism.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at opinion@coloradosun.com.
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