Panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" condemned president Donald Trump's sweeping and likely unconstitutional pause on federal government funding, and said it hurt many of his own voters.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's halt on congressionally approved grants and loan for many programs, and the Rev. Al Sharpton said the budget freeze would cut through his MAGA base of support.
"I think that it is clearly underestimated by those in the present West Wing that they are hurting their own base," Sharpton said. "I mean, many of those in MAGA land are impacted by these freezes. If they're reinstated, hopefully they're not on constitutional grounds, because when you talk about Medicare and when you talk about services, food for children, breakfast programs, lunch programs in school, all of this frozen. First of all, it's a recklessness that you show you don't care about regular people while you're protecting billionaires at the same time."
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"All of this in eight days," Sharpton added. "I mean, we're sitting here like he's been president for two years. He just took office eight days ago and has come like a wrecking ball. He reminds me of people when we on in the civil rights movement that said, let's march. What are we marching about and where are we going? Let's just march, and that's what he's doing – let's just disrupt. But you're disrupting your own voters, Mr. Trump."
MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle wondered whether Trump voters understood that these cuts were exactly what he promised during his campaign.
"Those voters, do they even know what's happening?" Ruhle said. "Because, remember, there are news deserts around the country and the billionaires you're talking about that control so much information out there. This is a moment where Democrats need a rapid-fire response, and they need to be in those rural towns and rural counties and speaking to fire chiefs and police chiefs and being town halls and saying, this is what's happening, and it's happening on Donald Trump's watch. Because if you actually go to those parts of the country and listen to the news, those people aren't even getting the correct information, and when they get it, the president who is making these choices won't be blamed."
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