Sebastian Gorka told Newsmax on Monday that President Donald Trump is prepared to cut federal funding to cities that prioritize criminals over law-abiding citizens through policies such as cashless bail.
“These cities are money pits of taxpayer funding paid for by you, me and all your viewers,” Gorka, deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism, told “Rob Schmitt Tonight.” “If you don’t want to be on the side of the citizens of your city — if you prefer to be on the side of the criminals, the illegals, the members of MS-13 — then there will be federal consequences, including financial, for you endangering your citizens.”
He emphasized that many of those cities are deeply dependent on federal aid for local services.
Gorka referenced the dramatic drop in violent crime in Washington, D.C., after Trump federalized law enforcement in the nation’s capital, marking “two weeks” without a murder and safer streets as proof that federal leadership can restore order.
He invoked former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s “broken windows” strategy, which aggressively targeted low-level crimes to reduce serious offenses.
“If you come down hard on small-time crimes that has a knock-on effect for murder rates, theft, grand larceny, carjackings,” Gorka said. “If you actually practice law enforcement, then people become safer.”
Trump on Monday signed an executive order that would cut federal funds, “including grants and contracts, currently provided to cashless bail jurisdictions.” He also signed an executive order eliminating cashless bail in Washington, D.C.
Illinois was reportedly the first state to completely eliminate cash bail in 2023, while New Jersey and New Mexico have largely eliminated it, and other states such as New York and California have implemented enhanced bail reforms.
In Los Angeles County, cash bail has been eliminated for nonviolent crimes since October 2023, with risk-based detention for serious offenses. Other cities, such as San Francisco, use risk assessment tools and pretrial services to reduce cash bail reliance.
Gorka argued that abandoning cash bail has made cities more dangerous, and he presented Trump’s threat to revoke federal aid as a tool to compel local officials to reconsider.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” he said. “There could be a huge payoff here to show people that you don’t have to live like this.”
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