Trump Administration’s Funding Cuts to Domestic Terrorism Prevention Programs Criticized After Minnesota Church Shooting

In the days preceding a mass shooting at a Minnesota church, federal funding was withdrawn for state programs aimed at identifying potential mass shooters and mitigating their violence. The grants were terminated as part of $18.5 million in cuts to a Homeland Security program, which some experts and lawmakers believe strengthens efforts to detect early warning signs of potential assailants like the one who killed two children and wounded 18 others during a Catholic Mass this week.

The revoked grants were managed by the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), an arm of DHS. In Minnesota, they funded initiatives at the Department of Public Safety and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office to evaluate and manage mass violence threats. The terminated funding amounted to approximately $800,000 in July.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that the money was allocated to “openly partisan and political organizations.” However, some lawmakers contend that this justification is baseless and leaving the state without these grants makes it less capable of preventing tragedies like the recent shooting at Annunciation Catholic School.

Democratic Representative Betty McCollum stated that the cancellation of the grant “limits our state law enforcement from access to vital federal counterterrorism partners and resources, leaving Minnesota communities more vulnerable to violent attacks.”

The shooting’s perpetrator, Robin Westman, in his own writings, expressed concerns about not being recognized as a potential threat by authorities. Westman wrote, “Should be harder for people like me to carry out these attacks,” and also mentioned some of his actions might attract suspicion.

The programs administered by CP3 aimed to enhance local communities’ capacity to recognize warning signs like those exhibited by Westman, although their effectiveness has been a topic of debate. When the Biden administration announced the initiative in 2021, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union criticized such programs as “ineffective, discriminatory and harmful to Muslims and communities of color.”

Law enforcement agencies and other groups have demonstrated high demand for funding through the program. A DHS report last year stated that 178 organizations applied for more than five times the available funding. The report highlighted various instances where the programs proved useful, such as a sheriff’s office responding to online threats of mass violence and charging an individual, a neo-Nazi being encouraged to access mental health services, and a hospital referring a troubled student to a support clinic.

The grant for Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety specifically focused on school shooters, with the funds intended to create a statewide threat assessment and management team and focus on “persons of concern, potential active shooters, school shootings/threats, stalking, and workplace violence.” For Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, the roughly $100,000 grant was meant to establish a multidisciplinary team to engage more actively with mental health professionals, school officials, social workers, and probation officers.

These programs might have potentially played a role in identifying Westman, some experts and officials suggested. A former DHS employee stated, “This event in Minneapolis was 100% preventable. This was exactly the kind of event we could have stopped.”

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Jill Oliveira, confirmed that the grant was awarded for behavioral threat assessment and management staff and training. Because of the cut, adjustments were made to reallocate resources.

The DHS announced sweeping cuts to CP3 programs in July, labeling the grants as “wasteful” and intended to “push woke, partisan agendas and silencing dissent.” It also alleged that “many of these grants went to organizations that celebrated, and encouraged transgenderism in our children.”

It remains unclear which specific programs DHS was referring to, though the July announcement mentioned a grant awarded to a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ issues. Not all CP3 grants appear to have been canceled; two grants awarded to the sheriff’s office in Palm Beach County, Florida – where Mar-a-Lago is located – remain active.

Following the shooting, First Lady Melania Trump called for more proactive interventions to prevent potential shooters. She posted on social media, “To prevent future tragedies, it is crucial we look into behavioral threat assessments across all levels of society—beginning in our homes, extending through school districts and of course, social media platforms. Being aware of these warning signs and acting quickly can save lives and make American communities safer.”