Liberal former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is pushing a $200 million program to help mayors push back against the Trump administration and Congress on areas such as climate change, gun control, and immigration.
Bloomberg, known for his forays into gun control and soda regulation, announced the “American Cities Initiative” at a speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Monday.
Using anti-Washington rhetoric, which has become the vogue among left-of-center types since Trump won the White House, Bloomberg said he was motivated by gridlock in D.C.
“The causes are many: gridlock, extremism, partisan media, fear of special interest groups. But the result is same: On nearly all the big issues, Washington has been AWOL, and as further budget cuts loom, the situation is going from bad to worse,” he said, according to prepared remarks.
Bloomberg’s plan will “strengthen cities halls and equip more mayors to solve their most important problem” by “rewarding innovative ideas with prize money.” Bloomberg said he intends to use the program to advance legislation on areas such as education, climate change, public health and “gun violence.”
The main thrust of the move appears to be to give mayors more power to resist right-wing actions from Washington and also from states.
“At a time when America needs bold city leadership more than ever, we can’t afford to let states tie the hands of mayors behind their back,” he said, adding that the program would also be used to empower “entrepreneurs, artists and volunteers.”
It isn’t the first time Bloomberg has pushed big money into fighting against Trump’s agenda. Last month, when Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, Bloomberg led a coalition of liberal mayors, governors, and businesses to seek United Nations permission to submit to it anyway — and offered up to $15 million in funding to the U.N.’s climate body.
Bloomberg doubled down on this approach Monday.
“We’ll expand our work to empower more mayors to lead the fight against climate change so that America can meet the goals set in Paris no matter what happens in Washington,” he said.
Ahead of the speech, Bloomberg teased the initiative to the New York Times, telling the paper that his initiative would serve as an extension of his current stances on climate change, gun rights, and immigration.
The Times reported that the $200 million would be spread out over three years and could even grow over time.
Bloomberg has frequently sought to dabble in national politics. He was widely reported to have considered an independent run in 2016 as a middle ground between Hillary Clinton and Trump, but eventually decided against such a run.
Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.