During his four years as the worst president in U.S. history, Donald Trump made some incredibly stupid and dangerous decisions, including one that could prove disastrous for the city of New York, according to Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future.
Marche spoke with Molly Jong-Fast of The Daily Beast and revealed the potentially fatal mistake made by Trump during his time in office.
Marche notes that during the Trump administration, the federal government pulled all funding for a seawall that could potentially protect Manhattan from a possible hurricane that stands to destroy most of New York’s infrastructure:
“The models when a hurricane hits New York are incredibly strong. Miami and New Orleans are very nice towns, but New York is New York and 88 percent of the world’s international currency goes through, it’s still the capital of the world really.”
New York faces another obstacle should such a natural disaster strike the city, Marche added:
“It’s also unrebuildable. When it floods, the density of the infrastructure is so thick that, unlike Miami or Houston or New Orleans, they won’t won’t bee able to rebuild it.”
In February of last year, the New York Times reported on Trump’s decision not to build the much-needed seawall:
“The Trump administration has unexpectedly halted a project to protect the New York City region from flooding during dangerous storms like Hurricane Sandy — a decision that came six weeks after President Trump took to Twitter to ridicule the study’s most expensive proposal, a giant sea wall that could have cost billions of dollars.”
That report from the Times included a suggestion that the decision to leave New York City vulnerable may well have been a political one; a final middle finger to the city and state where the ex-president is under multiple criminal investigations that could end up bankrupting his corporation and sending him and members of his family to prison:
“While Mr. Trump cannot single-handedly cancel a Corps project — the funding is allocated by Congress, and its work plan is determined jointly by Corps officials, the Department of Defense and the White House Office of Management and Budget — the unusual suspension of an ongoing project quickly led to speculation that politics had played a role. Mr. Trump’s tweet, in January, criticized one of the five possible proposals to reduce storm flooding along New York Harbor and its rivers: a sea barrier with retractable gates that would stretch from New Jersey to Queens.”
Imagine the human and financial cost of a major hurricane striking New York and devastating Manhattan. It would bring banking, business, and media to a standstill as Trump plays golf and laughs at the mayhem he’s caused with his inaction.
