Mayor Wu addresses possible effects of early Trump administration policies
By Olivia Peters
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and other Massachusetts state leaders speak to the Trump administration’s actions and their possible effects on the state.
Since his inauguration on January 20th, Donald Trump and his administration have been moving very fast, enacting executive orders and policies that target what they see to be wasteful or illegitimate government spending.
The president’s fast-paced actions have been difficult to keep up with, and Massachusetts government officials have begun monitoring closely to protect important state policies and funding.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says her office is assessing risks and trying to recognize “what is real and what is not real ” in President Trump’s plans and actions.
The new administration’s actions have created budget concerns for Massachusetts officials, who are worried about the reallocation or cutting of federal funding they’ve long relied on and the possible impacts of policy-related executive orders.
Wu spoke about protecting funding and policies, saying, “We have had to look at all the funding that we’ve been allocated and really ensure that the legal language is there in contracts to protect them and to work with the Attorney General [Andrea] Campbell and other colleagues to push back in places where those executive orders have already crossed the line.”
Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, spoke on Wednesday about the president’s focus on government efficiency and the recently signed executive order to implement the DOGE or the Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative. Leavitt said, “Agency
heads will coordinate and consult with DOGE to significantly shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions only. The unaccountable bureaucracy will finally be reined in.”
Mayor Wu has said that “so far,” the city of Boston has not encountered situations that it is worried about. She announced that the city plans to “lean on our resources here, locally, the authority that we have within the city level and within city government” to maintain resilience, housing, and public education goals.
She expanded on the city’s concerns, saying, “What we’ve learned in the last several weeks since the inauguration is that it’s one thing to issue a statement that seems to fulfill a campaign promise or something that was within Project 2025, and it’s another thing to have that actually have legal force to be able to be implemented.”
Wu added, “So far, we have not had direct impacts on the types of funding that we’re most worried about because of the legal processes that are still playing out. Now, as those get resolved, we’re monitoring very closely to see if anything needs to be adjusted to the realities of what’s happening.”
Mayor Wu, along with the mayors of Denver, Chicago, and New York, will testify in Washington, D.C., on March 5th regarding immigration issues.
On January 27, Wu received a letter from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer of Kentucky notifying her that his panel was “investigating sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States and their impact on public safety and the effectiveness of federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws of the United States.”
Under the Boston Trust Act, the city is a sanctuary jurisdiction. Comer claims cities, states, and counties with these jurisdictions, “take it upon themselves to decide what laws they will and will not abide by all for the purpose of shielding removable aliens, especially criminals, from federal law enforcement.”
Wu will testify in response to these claims and has spoken on Comer’s claims, saying Boston’s policies ensure that community members have access to the same resources regardless of immigration status while also being held accountable for their actions regardless of immigration status.