"Smoking Gun" Email Exposes Trump's War on Colorado

The Denver Post's Seth Klamann broke a story today that would in ordinary times bring the national news cycle to a halt, a story that appears to confirm the long-suspected truth about cuts to programs and federal institutions located in the state, and the veto of unanimously approved funding for a major water project in southeast Colorado. President Donald Trump, never a big fan of our state for a long list of reasons going back to being snubbed by Colorado Republicans in 2016, had promised "harsh measures" against Colorado as punishment for the continued imprisonment of convicted felon election denier Tina Peters.

Today's story confirms the cuts were orchestrated directly by the White House, on a timeline that fits perfectly with Trump's public threats:

In mid-December, an assistant to President Donald Trump summoned officials from several federal agencies to a meeting so they could discuss what to do about Colorado.

Under the subject line "brainstorm call," Emily Underwood asked officials from five agencies to join a call later that day "prepared to discuss immediate actions that your department or agency can take with respect to Colorado."

"The purpose of this call is to prioritize Colorado for the purposes of ensuring grants and federal support are in line with administration priorities," Underwood, a deputy assistant to the president, wrote to officials from the departments of energy, transportation, interior and agriculture, as well as the Office of Management and Budget.

Within days of this meeting, as the Post reports, the administration announced the cancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for transportation projects, announced its plan to break up Boulder's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), denied disaster relief funds, followed by Trump's veto of funding for the Arkansas Valley Conduit that had passed the U.S. House unanimously. The latter action marked the beginning of the end of Trump's formerly close relationship with Rep. Lauren Boebert, who made the mistake of pointing out the obvious motive while still awkwardly claiming to support Peters' release and, in general, Trump himself. It hasn't gotten any less awkward for her since.

After Gov. Jared Polis commuted Tina Peters' sentence in May, there is some anecdotal evidence that the Trump administration's hostility toward our state has eased, such as the groundbreaking on a new $228 million FDA food safety lab on the Federal Center campus in Lakewood in June. If Gov. Polis' highly unpopular decision to commute Peters' sentence, which has compromised his legacy after eight generally popular years in office, resulted in a pause in Trump's acts of revenge against the state, then that is simply more evidence of the ulterior motives the administration denies.

Other local Republicans like Rep. Gabe Evans have refused to criticize Trump's blatantly retaliatory acts against the state, with Evans insisting the cuts were not retaliation at all but rather "policy questions." As readers know, the Trump administration admitted last month in court that sweeping cuts to renewable energy programs last October were carried out for solely political reasons, including millions in cuts in Evans' own district.

According to a transcript of the hearing reviewed by The Denver Post, a senior state attorney said the email amounted to a "smoking gun": In the days that followed Underwood's note, several agencies included in the email announced adverse actions against Colorado, canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and moving to close a renowned climate lab in Boulder.

"It's extraordinary," David Moskowitz, Colorado's deputy solicitor general, said during the Tuesday hearing in U.S. District Court. The state had requested the hearing — and produced the email — in an effort to force the Trump administration to turn over more records. "And it's extraordinary because the scheme was run directly out of (the Executive Office of the President)."

Colorado's David Moskowitz told the court on Tuesday that this meeting precipitated a "mad scramble" to identify adverse actions that the administration could take against Colorado, including a review of the state SNAP food assistance funding.