President Trump’s hostility to cities may help him politically, but it threatens to worsen the recession because metropolitan regions are the engines of the nation’s economic growth, officials and analysts say.
The risk arises not just from the president’s rhetoric criticizing urban unrest. Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate are also rejecting fresh financial aid to state and local governments and to public transit systems in a second coronavirus relief package.
That shortchanges areas such as the Washington region and is a recipe for deepening and prolonging the economic slump. About 1.3 million state and local government employees have lost their jobs since March, and economists project that number will more than double in the next 18 months without help from Congress and the White House. Continue reading.