Trump plans to send federal troops to NY day after Andrew Cuomo threatens to sue over 'unconstitutional' move
President Donald Trump has refused to budge on his mission to send federal forces to states to deal with the deteriorating law and order situation. While he has already brought cities like Chicago and Albuquerque under the scope of Operation Legend, which was launched earlier this month in the wake of the killing of four-year-old LeGend Taliferro in Kansas City, Missouri, he has also expressed intention to send forces to New York City.
Trump’s warning came just a day after New York City Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was assured by the former that federal agents were not being sent to the Empire State. The Democratic leader, who has had differences with the Republican president a number of times over response to the Covid-19 pandemic, said Trump told him that he would discuss about deployment of the forces with him before taking a call on the matter.
Trump targets NY day after assuring Cuomo
Seems like only Cuomo remembered the conversation he had with Trump. On July 24, Trump took a dig at the cities run by "liberal Democrats" to say that "they were going to hell". "You look at what they're doing to cities — every city is run by a liberal Democrat, and they're going to hell," he said in an interview to Barstool Sports.
"We just sent people into Chicago. We’ve sent people into Portland. We’re sending people to New York, to help out," the 74-year-old election-bound president said.
Trump has blasted the violent protests that have spread across the cities in the US in the wake of the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis cops in May. He almost deployed the military but had to stop due to objection from people from within his administration. It was not clear as to why he wanted to send federal forces to New York City where the gun crime comes more under the purview of the local authorities.
“I’m going to do something — that, I can tell you,” he earlier told reporters in the Oval Office on July 20. "Because we're not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these — Oakland is a mess. We're not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats."
Cuomo said the day before that although Trump suggested sending troops to New York City, he did not find any justification in such an action. He said there are no federal buildings that needed protection and warned that sending in federal troops would be "inflammatory". While Cuomo said that he had a good conversation with the president, any action of sending the federal agents to NYC would see the state suing the federal government for he felt it was "blatantly unconstitutional".
Trump’s move to send forces to Portland and Chicago have also seen angry reactions in those cities.
The Trump administration has of late faced backlash from a number of states over issues such as excluding undocumented migrants while apportioning seats for the House of Representatives, a new executive order that they feel would endanger their jurisdiction over territorial water bodies or preventing international students from taking online classes by remaining within the US.