The story that should be anyone's undoing

It's not surprising, but it is anti-American

The motto for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and one of the founding mottos of the United States is “United We Stand. Divided We Fall.”

We recognize and celebrate our differences, historically, while also rowing together in a “United” States of America. Politics is the art of “half a loaf.” I may not get everything I want, and neither do you, but through compromise and reason we move together using our democracy and our constitution to better our lives, the lives of our children and grandchildren.

Whoever wins our elections we celebrate a peaceful change of power, we work together. We move on.

Donald Trump has destroyed that tradition and is in the process of destroying the foundation of the very term “United” in the United States.

This week he personally intervened to block disaster aid to four Democratic-led states and had to override his own government agencies to do it.

New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Jersey are the victims. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had determined that all four states met the requirements for receiving aid after a record-breaking blizzard in February.

This is almost unheard of. In covering natural disasters for the last 40 years, I don’t remember a state ever being denied benefits if they met the qualifications to get the funds.

I know there have been questions in the past about mishandling funds, or inaccurate reporting that led to denial - sometimes briefly and on occasion for a longer period of time. In a statement, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that “there is no politicization to the president’s decisions on disaster relief.”

However, the Trump administration already earlier this month admitted in court that the White House has deliberately canceled clean energy funding to states that didn’t vote for him in the 2024 presidential election. The president has also withheld childcare funding to blue states.

Is it hard to believe that this is yet another indication that Trump does not care about the ties that bind.

He has proven to be a divisive force of nature, vindictive and petulent.

Here is yet another indication.