Trump moves to defund sanctuary cities, targets LA, NYC, Chicago, and more with harsh warning

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, January 14, that his administration will cut off federal funding to sanctuary cities and states nationwide.

In a Truth Social post, Trump set a February 1 deadline to halt payments to what he called “CORRUPT CRIMINAL PROTECTION CENTERS.”

The announcement escalated the administration’s confrontation with jurisdictions that limited cooperation with federal immigration authorities, coming just days after Trump warned of a “day of reckoning” in the Midwest.

Defunding 'corrupt criminal protection centers'

Trump outlined the policy in all caps, writing: “EFFECTIVE FEBRUARY FIRST, NO MORE PAYMENTS WILL BE MADE BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO STATES FOR THEIR CORRUPT CRIMINAL PROTECTION CENTERS KNOWN AS SANCTUARY CITIES.”

He argued that sanctuary policies threatened public safety. “ALL THEY DO IS BREED CRIME AND VIOLENCE!” Trump wrote. He added that states choosing to maintain such policies would bear the cost themselves: “If States want them, they will have to pay for them! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

The White House has not yet released details on which funding streams would be affected or how the policy would be implemented.

DOJ lists major sanctuary jurisdictions 

The move aligned with an executive order Trump signed last year directing federal agencies to identify jurisdictions with sanctuary policies. In response, the Department of Justice published a list of states and cities that limited cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

The list included 12 states and numerous large cities. Among those named were New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle, all of which maintained policies restricting local participation in federal immigration detentions or information sharing.

If implemented, the funding freeze could place significant pressure on municipal and state budgets that rely on federal grants for transportation, housing, and social services.

Reckoning coming for Minnesota unrest 

Trump’s announcement followed his comments on Tuesday targeting Minnesota, where protests had intensified after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent on January 7. In a separate Truth Social post, Trump wrote that “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING.”

He defended the federal operation in the state, saying that ICE agents were “patriots” seeking to “remove them from your neighborhood and send them back to the prisons and mental institutions from where they came.” Trump blamed “Sleepy Joe Biden’s HORRIBLE Open Border’s Policy” for what he described as an influx of “deadly criminals.”

State and local officials in Minnesota have disputed the administration’s characterization and are pursuing legal action over the federal deployment.

Attacking Democrats over stolen funds 

In the same series of posts, Trump listed the individuals he claimed were shielded by sanctuary policies, including “convicted murderers, d**g dealers and addicts, r*****s, violent released and escaped prisoners,” and “dangerous people from foreign mental institutions.”

He accused Minnesota Democrats of using unrest to divert attention from alleged financial misconduct. “Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people,” Trump wrote.

Trump ended his message to the state with: “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”