Republished with permission from Lucian K. Truscott IV

Federal agencies have been ordered by Donald Trump’s White House to find grants that the administration can withhold from the state of California. It’s not the first time Trump has targeted the most populous state in the Union. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget recently announced that $126 million in California flood control funding will be zeroed out in the 2025 public works budget.

According to CNN, a total of $436 million was cut from the budget for water projects in states with Democratic senators, while states led by Republicans are to receive $257 million more than was allocated in last year’s budget. Texas alone is to receive $206 million in new funds. In all, the Trump budget allocates 64 percent of new funds to red states, with only 33 percent of funds going to blue states.

A spokesman for the White House told CNN, “No taxpayer should be forced to fund the demise of our country,” specifically referencing cuts targeting California.

Trump has also attempted to withhold FEMA funds from blue states he accuses of having “sanctuary cities,” blocking funds to at least 23 states in an executive order he signed on January 20. In April, a federal judge ordered the administration to cease its “covert” withholding of FEMA funds to 19 blue states that had sued the government claiming discrimination.

Trump has decided that he will be the President of the Red States of America. The states that banned abortion, use extreme gerrymandering to set their legislative districts, and made voting more difficult for minorities haven’t had to secede from the Union. Trump is forcing the secession of Democratic-leaning states instead, using federal funds to punish the states that failed to support him in 2024 and 2020.

He’s running the country as if it’s a gigantic Mar-a-Lago club. Buy a membership with your votes, and you’re in the club. Fail to pay your dues by not voting for Trump and Republicans in Congress, and you’re out. CNN reported that the White House will use cuts in federal grants to the state-wide system of the University of California to punish the state for supporting Kamala Harris in the last election. Trump is using the patently false charge of anti-Semitism on university campuses to justify slashing their funds. He has used the same strategy with Harvard, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, recently attempting to ban the university from accepting foreign students and severely cutting its federal funding for research. He has done the same thing to Columbia University in New York.

No cuts have been announced to the Universities of Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, West Virginia, Tennessee, or Indiana.

Trump has been obsessed with prestigious clubs and colleges for decades. He was snubbed by the upper tier of clubs in Manhattan, such as the Union League Club, the Century, and the Metropolitan. Seemingly in retaliation, he bought Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach and turned it into a private club, last year raising the price of a membership to $1 million. The Palm Beach Post reports that annual dues are about $20,000. Trump has appointed four Mar-a-Lago members to ambassadorships, including handbag designer Lana Marks as Ambassador to South Africa during his last administration.

Trump’s overt discrimination against blue states in federal funding is unprecedented. Blue state attorney generals have had to repeatedly combine their efforts to file lawsuits against Trump’s cuts to their federal funding.

Citizenship of this country is not membership in a club. It is guaranteed to those born here by the Constitution of the United States. Rights under the Constitution are not conveyed to those who pay dues by their votes or residence in one state instead of another. As Barack Obama famously said, we are not two Americas, red and blue. We are one country with “liberty and justice for all,” not just for those with a membership in Donald Trump’s political club.