Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

There is still no true governing philosophy of the second Trump administration. It is, on any given day, radically libertarian or obsessively protectionist. The economy is sputtering, and Donald Trump doesn’t seem to care. He’s got scores to settle and vendettas to execute. And he’s empowered enough sinister ideologues, from Stephen Miller to Russell Vought, to make this redux as painful as can be.

Many years ago, Trump promised to be an infrastructure president. America would build again, and build greatly. That of course was a lie, but the real-estate developer in Trump may have been, for a passing moment, earnest. The trouble for him (and everyone else) is that the petty grievances always win out: Trump would rather never build again as long as those who are opposed to him suffer. Of late, Vought, his hard-right budget director, has withheld tens of billions in federal dollars from New York and Chicago for major rail and tunnel projects that will benefit many millions of people, including those who vote Republican. Vought is pausing $18 billion in funds already awarded to New York to complete a desperately needed rail tunnel under the Hudson River and extend the Second Avenue Subway to East Harlem. In Chicago, he’s blocking $2.1 billion for rail extensions and modernizations.

The reasoning is not so much fascistic as racist and nonsensical: Vought wants to ensure these federal dollars are not in violation of their new anti-DEI policy. The idea is that, in some form, Democrats in New York will have to placate the Trump administration and promise not to pursue Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, as if any of this is remotely relevant to the functioning of rail and tunnel infrastructure in the tristate area. It’s very possible Trump views this all as a negotiating ploy in his battle with the Democrats to reopen the government after it shut down earlier this week.

Both Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leaders in Congress, represent New York City and care a great deal about the future of public transportation. For Trump, this is a version of hitting them where it hurts.

Even if it’s a tactic, a means of forcing Democrats to comply with him, it’s deeply destructive. Countries cannot be seriously run this way. The smarter autocrats know this — they seek to strengthen their governments, not wantonly cut them, and even pursue some larger infrastructure projects that might ensure they retain popularity with the people they seek to dominate. Trump has less a theory of power than a theory of revenge: If you hit him, he wants to hit you ten times as hard and never stop. New York and Chicago Democrats will pay the price for not submitting to the MAGA movement.

These kinds of actions, beyond damaging the cities themselves, will only erode Trump further. The economy is slackening. Business leaders depend on predictability and rationality, and they get none of it from Trump. Many of his billionaire friends, especially those who live in New York and New Jersey, want federal dollars to flow to new rail lines and tunnels. They oversee companies with workforces that live and commute within the tristate area. If Trump holds firm and these billions are scrapped altogether — the local Democrats can’t sufficiently prove to the marauding Vought that they are anti-DEI — he will have directly short-circuited some of America’s largest and most consequential economic engines.

Ultimately, even Trump may not be that nihilistic. He retains an interest in New York, as someone who lived there for most of his life, and Governor Kathy Hochul has shown, in her negotiations with him to keep congestion pricing alive, that it’s possible to get on the phone to barter and battle back. The Trump administration already announced it will restore $187 million in cuts it had made to law-enforcement funding, which had taken aim at New York’s intelligence and counterterrorism operations.

Trump may simply be rooting around for an advantage in the shutdown fight, and he figures federal dollars for infrastructure projects that are many years from completion aren’t on the minds of many voters. For a limited number of days or even weeks, he may believe he can safely play this game. What he does have going for him is that Schumer and Jeffries lack the talent and drive to serve as effective mouthpieces for their party. They are nowhere near as gifted as Nancy Pelosi. They have not figured out how to exploit Trump’s many weaknesses or excite a Democratic base that is hungry for fresh leadership. Until they do, Trump will find it easy enough to continually bully Democrats and torment the cities they represent.

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