Trump Is Defunding Public Safety

Across-the-board cuts at DOJ are endangering American lives—and exposing the hypocrisy of an administration that claims to care.

What would you say are the most serious threats to public safety in America? Shootings? Fentanyl? Sexual assault? Child abuse? Hate crimes? Terrorism?

Donald Trump just gutted funding to fight all of the above.

Without warning, the Justice Department recently terminated 373 grants totaling $820 million for programs that help victims and prevent crime.

The specifics are harrowing. The Department yanked funding to train more sexual assault nurse examiners, whose exams produce better evidence and a higher likelihood of prosecution than in cases when no nurse examiner is involved, but who are in short supply. It shut off money to domestic violence shelters and sexual assault hotlines. Grassroots groups that cover victims’ basic needs, like transportation and diapers, lost funding from Iowa to Georgia.

The list goes on: DOJ also slashed money to help police stop child exploitation on the internet and protect seniors from scam artists. It defunded sign language interpretation for deaf victims.

The cuts reverse progress in tackling gun violence, in particular. After years of inaction, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, funding community violence intervention strategies that reach people the police can’t. Think of a trusted leader visiting a gunshot victim in the hospital, persuading him not to retaliate, and connecting him to social services. Or a street outreach worker with neighborhood roots deescalating conflict and mediating disputes. These programs work. Studies show they have helped reduce violence by 73% among participants in Chicago, shooting victimizations by 63% in the South Bronx, and gun violence by 55% in Richmond, California, to name a few. And yet DOJ cancelled grants that fund such work across the board. Thousands of violence prevention workers have already been laid off as we head into summer, when violence typically spikes.

The 2022 law also provided $1 billion to hire and train school-based mental health workers, a provision championed by Republican co-sponsors after the deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Trump’s team cancelled that funding too.

Further cuts expose the administration’s incoherence. It claims to care about antisemitism but gutted hate crimes prevention funding. It vows to fight the opioid crisis but ended overdose prevention grants. It accuses Tesla vandals of domestic terrorism, but dismantled the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training program. It supposedly “backs the blue” but zeroed out the $14 million Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative and the $20 million VALOR initiative supporting officer wellbeing.

Programs to ensure the justice system works as intended weren’t spared. The administration axed support for the Innocence Project, froze Prison Rape Elimination Act funds, and revoked the George W. Bush-enacted reentry funding that has reduced recidivism around the country.

One might ask whether all the programs currently being targeted are effective. Perhaps some of the money should be redeployed? In fact, DOJ has asked this question routinely in the past. Under previous administrations it funded independent researchers to evaluate program impact. This administration has slashed that evaluation funding as well.

Attorney General Pam Bondi appears to have conducted no impact analysis before concluding the grants were all “wasteful” and approving their termination. A DOGE staffer hastily compiled the list of targets without input from program managers, according to reporting, and DOGE quickly congratulated Bondi on X after her announcement. Her wrecking ball approach has already forced her to backtrack on certain domestic violence funds.

Bondi has tried to defend the cuts by highlighting grants serving populations she thinks the public disfavors. On X, she bragged about stopping research “to assess the efficacy of police departments’ LGBTQ liaison services.” LGBTQ Americans are nine times more likely than non-LGBTQ people to be targeted in violent hate crimes, and many are reluctant to call 911 due to previous police harassment. Police departments have created outreach roles to build trust and better respond to threats. If we’re serious about safety, it’s worth studying how well that approach works.

We should not be surprised by these public safety cuts. Trump has repeatedly betrayed police and victims while claiming to be their champion. He pardoned the January 6 rioters, including those who injured over 140 officers. He moved to fire thousands of FBI agents. He pulled agents off child abuse, drug trafficking, and money laundering cases so they could arrest undocumented immigrants with no criminal record. He shut down a database that tracks domestic terrorism and school shootings. He’s trying to slash federal funding for Narcan, the miracle drug that saves thousands from overdose deaths each year, as well as money for health care, housing, and education, precisely the investments that drive crime down over time.

DOJ must restore the funding it has stripped. Congress can force the administration’s hand. But while Senate and House Democrats have raised the alarm, Republicans so far have stayed silent, putting loyalty to Trump over life-saving programs.

So, what’s the most serious threat to public safety today? It turns out it’s an administration that talks tough but trashes proven solutions.

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Chiraag Bains is a former federal prosecutor and served as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. He is a nonresident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution.