President Donald Trump said he would cut off federal funding to California — a threat he also made about the University of California, Berkeley last week after a wild protest — if legislators vote to become a sanctuary state, he said Sunday in a Fox News interview just before the Super Bowl.
"If we have to, we'll defund," Trump told O'Reilly Factor talk show host, Bill O'Reilly. "We give tremendous amounts of money to California."
The president told Fox he is very much opposed to sanctuary cities, which he called "ridiculous."
"They breed crime, there's a lot of problems," he said.
Trump was talking about what California Democrats in the Senate did last week: They advanced legislation that would provide statewide sanctuary for immigrants and keep local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities. The bill was introduced by state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon that and would prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from using officers or jails to uphold federal immigration laws, effectively a statewide version of so-called sanctuary cities.
But in terms of the "tremendous amounts of money" Trump was referring to, a 2016 analysis by WalletHub proved California is low on the list. The study of least federally dependent states showed that the Golden State came in at number 46 on the list, according to CNBC.
However, the University of California receives at least $9 billion in an assortment of grants, financial aid and research—all of which could be imperiled if Trump made good on a threat he made last week. He tweeted that he would possibly cut of federal funds to Cal after wild protests over Bretibart editor Milo Yiannopoulous that ended in a canceled speech and $100,000 in damage wreaked upon the campus.
California is "out of control" in many ways, and voters agree "otherwise they wouldn't have voted for me," Trump said during the interview.
U.S. & World
Trump lost California, which leans left politically, by a wide margin to former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
"I don't want to defund the state or city, I don't want to defund anybody, I want to give them the money they need to properly operate a city or a state," Trump said.
That said, "if they're going to have sanctuary cities we may have to do that - certainly that would be a weapon."
