The president endorsed a GOP lawmaker’s bill to take away the tax-exempt status of groups supposedly involved in “unlawful riots”
President Donald Trump voiced support Saturday for new legislation aiming to punish groups linked to the June protests in Los Angeles against the administration’s aggressive immigration raids and arrests.
The legislation, offered by Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), would make nonprofits involved in supposedly “organizing the riots” ineligible for federal funding or tax-exempt status. At the center of the proposed bill is an immigrants rights group based in L.A. that denies any wrongdoing and says the accusations are false.
“CONGRESSMAN KEVIN KILEY’S, ‘NO TAX DOLLARS FOR RIOTS’ legislation, should be passed immediately,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday. “I am hereby instructing my Administration not to pay ANY money to these radicalized groups, regardless of the legislation. They get paid to incite riots, burn down or destroy a city, then come back to the trough to get money to help rebuild it. NO MORE MONEY!!!”
The text of the bill has not been publicly released.
Kiley framed the protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a threat. “The violence we have witnessed in Los Angeles is a threat to the safety of our communities and federal officers, and it undermines democracy by obstructing the policies of a duly elected president from being implemented.” Kiley said in a statement. “We need better tools to deter and punish this lawless and anti-democratic behavior.”
