Indiana Lt. Gov: Trump Threatened To Withhold Funding If We Didn’t Redistrict

In a now-deleted post, Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith said Thursday the Trump administration very explicitly threatened to withhold federal funds from the state if it didn’t bow to pressure and help him rig the House by drawing a new congressional map.

“The Trump admin was VERY clear about this,” Beckwith, a MAGA Republican who supported the unprecedented redistricting plan, said on social media.

“They told many lawmakers, cabinet members and the Gov and I that this would happen. The Indiana Senate made it clear to the Trump Admin today that they do not want to be partners with the WH. The WH made it clear to them that they’d oblige.”

Before he deleted the post, Beckwith confirmed the threat in separate comments to Politico, but puzzlingly claimed it wasn’t actually a threat while describing the nature of the threat itself.

“Yes these conversations happened,” he told Politico reporter Adam Wren. “But it’s not a threat. It’s an honest conversation about who does the WH want to partner with. There are 49 other states competing for all kinds of projects. Indiana told the WH today they don’t want to be a good partner to the Trump Admin and I suspect the WH will look to partner with other states before us.”

Beckwith’s comments confirm the veracity of a broad threat made by Heritage Action, the political advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, the far-right think tank behind Project 2025, earlier in the day.

“President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state,” Heritage Action threatened.

“Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.”

The threats failed.

Indiana’s state senate voted down the unprecedented effort 19-31, with a majority of Republicans giving it a thumbs down.

“It’s time to say no to pressure from Washington DC,” Indiana state Sen. Spencer Deery, a Republican, told NOTUS after the vote. “It’s time to say no to removing accountability from elected officials. It’s time to say no to outsiders who are trying to run our state.”

Indiana Democratic Party chair Karen Tallian applauded the state’s decision to uphold the basic rule of law.

“The Indiana General Assembly has rules. Redistricting happens every ten years. These rules are not obstacles. They are safety nets,” she said.

“Upholding the rules is not an act of weakness – it is an act of responsibility: maintaining the integrity of the process and preserving the legitimacy and credibility of the institution. Today, that’s what my former colleagues did by rejecting this partisan sideshow.”

In characteristic Trump fashion, the president claimed afterward he didn’t actually care all that much. “I wasn’t working on it very hard,” he said. “I wasn’t very much involved.”