Thank you (again) Mr. President!
One thing I love about President Trump, among many things, is he’s not afraid to overrule his own cabinet officials when he needs to!
Like last week when someone in his Administration tried to add new sanctions to North Korea.
President Trump immediately took to Twitter to announce he did NOT agree and would be removing those sanctions in efforts to close the deal with North Korea and get them completely de-nuclearized.
And something similar has just happened with the Special Olympics.
News broke earlier this week that the Trump Administration would be cutting funding for the event.
President Trump just got personally involved to fix that mistake and declared he is personally making sure the funding is secured!
Take a look:
The Hill had more details:
President Trump said Thursday that he's overruled his administration officials who sought to zero out funding for the Special Olympics in their budget proposal.
"The Special Olympics will be funded. I just told my people, ‘I want to fund the special Olympics,' " Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a campaign rally in Michigan.
"I heard about it this morning,” he added. “I have overridden my people. We’re funding the Special Olympics."
Trump added that he's been to the sporting event personally, calling it "incredible."
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has faced mounting scrutiny from lawmakers in both major parties after the department's budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 did not include funding for the program.
The Education Department's proposal was unlikely to go forward in Congress given the widespread opposition to the $17.6 million in cuts to the program.
Trump reversed his administration's position nevertheless, undermining DeVos hours after she had defended the decision to Senate appropriators.
"I love Special Olympics," Devos said. "I have given a portion of my salary to Special Olympics. I hope all of this debate inspires private contributions to Special Olympics."
A day earlier, DeVos issued a statement that said she supported the program but that "the federal government cannot fund every worthy program, particularly ones that enjoy robust support from private donations.”
She has chastised the media and lawmakers, suggesting they were twisting the funding debate for political purposes.
But members of Congress were largely united in their opposition to the move.
“Whoever came up with that idea at [the Office of Management and Budget] gets a Special Olympic Gold Medal for insensitivity,” Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the Senate Democratic whip, told DeVos at Thursday's hearing.
Why Do So Many Politicians Have Bruises Near Their Eyes Recently?
And from the USA Today:
President Donald Trump said he would jettison a proposal to slash funding for the Special Olympics, undercutting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the budget proposal he signed.
"The Special Olympics will be funded. I just told my people I want to fund the Special Olympics," Trump said he left the White House en route to a political rally in Grand Rapids, Mich. "I have overridden my people. We're funding the Special Olympics."
Trump's remarks came after widespread criticism targeted DeVos' budget proposal to eliminate funding for the program, which is designed to help children and adults with disabilities.
DeVos’ proposed $17.6 million cut for the Special Olympics was included in the $4.75 trillion federal budget that President Donald Trump’s administration sent to Congress earlier this month.
Trump, in his comments on Thursday, offered no additional information about whether his administration will commit to funding the entire $17.6 million Special Olympics had been getting and whether it will be protected from future proposed reductions.
After Trump made the announcement, DeVos thanked the president and said they see "eye to eye" on this, adding she pushed him to change his stance on funding the program.
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