The federal government’s debiting $80.5 million from New York City’s bank account suggests yes
Donald Trump can do anything he wants. He always has, nobody has ever stopped him, and realistically, nobody ever will.
The answer is, as always, “yes, as long as no one stops him”.
At this point, Trump is simply saying “I will do this, this, and that”, testing to see if anyone will say “no, you can’t!”
But apparently, no one will.
So, this is a special situation, as it was a scheduled payment under a contract with NYC, relating to a migrant housing program. The payment was made just before everything got DOGEd, and when DOGE found out, it lost its collective shit and forced the payment to be reversed.
However, all you really need to make a debit out of a bank account is a routing number, account number, and proper authorization.
DOGE can apparently manufacture authorization out of thin air. And I bet it has everyone’s routing info and account information from everyone who has ever filed a return with the IRS and used Direct Deposit (or paid by check in the mail).
You’re glossing over the most important word:
The payment was made just before everything got DOGEd
It was a valid payment, not made in error. They decided after the fact that they didn’t like the valid payment, and reversed it. This likely involved fraud, because that’s not a valid reason to reverse a payment.
Sounds like a good reason to move my money outside the reach of the US government. I’m sure that will help boost our economy and provide certainty.
The govt has always been able to garnish wages or sieze assets, yes, which is one of the intended upsides of a decentralized crypto currency (disregarding all of the downsides).
