Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said Sunday that he expects Republican opposition to President Donald Trump’s policy agenda to grow after his administration’s recent push to create a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, among other actions.
“We fought a revolution to stop exactly this — a ruler from taking public funds and doing whatever they want with no checks and balances,” Booker told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “This president is giving us a master class in our own democracy by tearing it down.”
The anti-weaponization fund would allow those who claim they were victims of the government to apply for compensation and could include those convicted, but pardoned by Trump, for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
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But that fund’s creation was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Friday, one of multiple Trump actions halted by courts in the last week. In a separate case, a federal judge ordered Trump’s name to be removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The president spoke out against the decision on his social media platform, bashing the judge who made the ruling, but suggested he was moving on.
“We are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it,” Trump wrote in a post Friday.
Booker sharply criticized the president for adding his name to the center in the first place and said he has discussed the matter with his Republican colleagues. More pushback has come from the president’s party in recent weeks after Trump-backed candidates defeated multiple Republican incumbents in their primaries, including Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy and Texas Sen. John Cornyn.
Asked about the possibility for more GOP pushback, Booker said he was “absolutely expecting” it.
“In private conversations … Republicans will express how aghast they are at the behavior,” Booker said. “The president took one of our sacred memorials to an assassinated president and slapped his name on it. What’s next? The Trump-Lincoln Memorial? God bless America.”
Democrats have repeatedly criticized the president for adding his name and image to other American institutions or symbols, including his administration’s push last week to put his face on a special $250 bill for the country’s 250th birthday, which would require Congress to change the law to allow a living person to appear on U.S. currency.
Booker said Sunday that the anniversary of the nation’s founding should not be centered around the president.
“This is the problem with Trump. He’s a divider-in-chief,” Booker said. “What I’m hoping people are seeing in this is not his intention, but reminding us what American history has always been about. It’s been about the power of the people being greater than the people in power.”
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