There is a critical difference between a U.S. president squabbling with leaders from a state and the president directing the machinery of the federal government to punish that state.
If the allegations made public last week in the media are true, the Trump administration exposed yet another treacherous abuse of its power.
At the center of this fight is former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, whose political saga has become a national cause célèbre among some Trump supporters and MAGA cult members.
But the basic legal facts of that drama should not be obscured by the politics.
Peters was convicted of breaking the law. She’s a felon. And the laws she broke were state laws, not federal laws, as the Sentinel and numerous Colorado media have repeatedly reported.
Her prison punishment was the responsibility of the Colorado criminal-justice system, not the federal government and not President Donald Trump.
The White House had no authority to dictate how Colorado should handle her state sentence.
That never stopped Trump, who publicly pined for Peters’ release, threatened over it and eventually had a tantrum over Peters being held accountable for her crimes, linked to his own lies and distortions about his lost 2020 presidential election.
A CPR News report of this latest transgression, as first reported by the Denver Post, describes an shocking sequence of events. After Colorado refused to move Peters to a federal prison so that Trump could release her, and Colorado officials rebuked Trump’s useless clemency declaration for her, a White House official emailed leaders at five federal agencies on Dec. 15, 2025, asking them to discuss “immediate actions” their departments could take regarding Colorado.
The call was described as a way to ensure federal grants and support for Colorado were “in line with administration priorities,” CPR and the Post reported.
Some grants to Colorado were canceled in the days that followed the White House missive.
That’s not a trivial allegation piled on top of endless other allegations of malfeasance and corruption linked to Trump and his administration. Federal agencies exist to administer laws and programs, usually created by Congress. These agencies are not created to serve as the president’s political enforcement squad against states that refuse his demands.
If there were ever an argument against running the government like a personal business, Donald Trump is the poster boy.
Aurora Congressperson Jason Crow made clear last week how serious this is by labeling it an “illegal retribution campaign.”
Illegal is the keyword here.
Bennet accurately told CPR that Trump clearly weaponized “the federal government to punish Colorado.”
All of the Democratic members of Congress in Colorado have called for an investigation by inspectors general and demand that all emails and evidence be preserved to facilitate such a probe.
Even Colorado GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd has made clear how serious the allegations are and how compelling the evidence is so far.
“We do not know all the facts yet,” Hurd told CPR, but he said, “federal power cannot be used for political retaliation.” If federal agencies were directed to punish Colorado, he said, it “crosses a serious line.”
Trump has repeatedly sought ways to disparage and cause problems with the Centennial State during his two administrations.
Colorado voters have never come close to approving his presidential bids, and he almost did not have his name on the 2020 presidential ballot when a dispute at the state Supreme Court was settled by the higher U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump was successful in taking the headquarters for Space Command away from Colorado before he was voted out of office in 2020 and then reversed a Biden administration reversal when he resumed office in 2025. Trump spitefully cited Colorado’s mail-in voting when announcing the decision to move Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama.
Political machinations like that are far from rare across history, but they’re nothing like this new White House brand of extortion.
A bipartisan panel of members of both the House and Senate should investigate. The administration should absolutely preserve and produce the records of the Dec. 15 call.
The inquiry should also establish whether decisions involving Space Command, environmental transportation grants, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, SNAP funding and disaster declarations were also just other political retaliation stunts.
President Trump swore to honor the Constitution. That oath does not come with an exception for how he handles his political enemies.
If the evidence ultimately establishes that Trump directed federal agencies to punish Colorado because state officials refused his political-buddy demands, that would represent a profound abuse of presidential power and certainly grounds for impeachment.
Colorado, and the rest of the nation, deserves the truth, which it won’t get from Trump.
There are many reasons that Colorado deserves to be punished. For example, being a “sanctuary state” is one of them. Sentencing Tina Peters is not; despite her sentence being overly harsh. It reminds me of when FEMA was directed not to assist individuals with pro-Trump signs in front of their homes under the Biden administration.
Trump IS the posterboy for never ever thinking about handing over the reins of givernment to a “businessnan.” I’m not sure you can call him a businessman after all the business felonies he was convicted of and being told he can’t run another nonprofit in New York. Herbert Hoover was the previous example and he led us into the Great Depression! Sounds like a poor choice for sure!
Evidence?
It’s a long wait if you are looking for evidence in politics.
Tell that to the ghost of Richard Nixon.
Dem mantra, “Do as I say, not as I do.” It’s readily apparent that Dems have no problem acting the same way when it serves their interests while crying foul when it doesn’t. More of the absolute absurdity of this dysfunctional and corrupt party.
Evidence for any of this? Reliable evidence?
Get real, Aurora citizens. Tina Peters is just a “red herring” to the Donald. He hates Colorado since his first term and now into his second for being pro immigration, highly democratic voting, a State AG that likes to sue anyone as much as he does, and outspoken Jason Crow. Not to mention our gay governor.
He knows that Colorado politicians get “all riled up” with the mention of Tina Peters so he does it often and effectively. Then the newspapers pick it up, playing right into his hand, and he smiles.
As long as he is President, Colorado will get no new funding and will be reviled at every political turn. Believe me that Tina Peters has very little to do with it.
Except that this statement “FEMA was directed not to assist individuals with pro-Trump signs in front of their homes under the Biden administration” is a lie.
Just one of many.
Andrea – Pay attention.
AI Overview In November 2024, FEMA fired a supervisor named Marn’i Washington after she instructed disaster relief field teams in Lake Placid, Florida, to bypass and avoid homes displaying Donald Trump campaign signs following Hurricane Milton.
The Incident and Reactions The Directive: The supervisor told her Survivor Assistance Team to skip properties with pro-Trump yard signs, leading to entries in government tracking systems noting “Trump sign no entry per leadership”.
FEMA’s Response: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell called the action “reprehensible” and a clear violation of agency core values, immediately terminating the employee and referring the matter to the Office of Special Counsel.
State and Legal Fallout: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis strongly condemned the act as targeted political discrimination, and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody subsequently filed a lawsuit against FEMA and agency officials.
The title says it all, the Colorado Democrat machine is sending out an e-lert to whip up some anti-Trump factions to hit him before his cabinet enforces existing laws. The President can’t do much with Tina Peters except maybe help her get her book written and the Democrats are flipping out over it. She could write all about Mesa County and the “State” of Colorado.
All fine and well, except we are dealing with a “president” who has never read the Constitution (and wouldn’t comprehend it if he did) and is lawless to boot.
What will you do when he attempts to run for a THIRD term?