January 09, 2026 11:01 AM UTC

Weiser Ties It All Together: Colorado Is Under Siege

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Colorado Newsline’s Lindsey Toomer reports, after filing dozens of individual lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s long list of controversial, adverse, and increasingly obviously retaliatory decisions affecting the state of Colorado in less than one year in office, Attorney General Phil Weiser has united all of these disparate hostile actions into a single legal narrative–the story of a lawless President out for revenge against a state that has repeatedly challenged his excesses:

A lawsuit that says the Trump administration violated Colorado’s state sovereignty has been updated to cite additional federal actions the state says are unconstitutional, according to Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.

The Trump administration has “ramped up a widespread campaign of retribution to punish Colorado” in recent weeks, Weiser, a Democrat running for Colorado governor, said in a press call Thursday…

Trump’s moves to terminate transportation funding for Colorado, close the National Center for Atmospheric Research, require updated eligibility interviews for people receiving federal food assistance, and deny Federal Emergency Management Agency relief for areas affected by wildfires and flooding also violate state sovereignty, the amended lawsuit says.

“This series of events and the timing, demonstrate and reflect an unmistakable campaign of punishment and threats directed at Colorado to respond to what is the lawful exercise of our sovereign authority,” Weiser said. “And sadly, indications are more might be coming.”

The Denver Post’s Nick Coltrain:

Weiser named a litany of moves the Trump administration had made in recent weeks — from moving to shut down the National Center for Atmospheric Research to putting food assistance in limbo to denying disaster declarations — in his updated lawsuit…

“I recognize this is a novel request, and that’s because this is an unprecedented administration,” Weiser, a Democrat, said. “We’ve never seen an administration act in a way that is so flatly violating the Constitution and disrespecting state sovereign authority. We have to protect our authority (and) defend the principles we believe in.”

Colorado Public Radio’s Bente Birkeland:

Weiser’s original suit challenged the Trump administration’s decision to move U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama. The lawsuit said Trump used the fact that he disliked how Colorado runs elections as part of that justification, “[t]he problem I have with Colorado” is that “they do mail-in voting” said Trump.

Weiser is now seeking a declaration from the courts to condemn the administration for a broader effort of “unlawful and harmful actions.”

“The US Constitution does not permit the president to single out states for punishment based on the exercise of those states core sovereign authority, but that’s exactly what President Trump has done,” said Weiser during a press call providing details about the legal action.

As we’ve written about at length in this space many times, President Donald Trump’s grudge against the state of Colorado goes back to his first run for office in 2016, when local Republicans rebelled against Trump’s growing influence over the party and backed Ted Cruz at the state assembly. Trump made the original decision to move the U.S. Space Command to Alabama in the closing days of his first term as a reward for that state’s loyalty, and punishment for Colorado going from blue to dark blue during his presidency. But it was the lawsuit challenging Trump’s eligibility to appear on Colorado’s ballot in 2024 on 14th Amendment grounds, validated by the Colorado Supreme Court before being rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, that made our state a lasting target for Trump’s revenge once he regained the White House. That event, combined with the conviction of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and Trump’s subsequent inability to effect her release, has placed Colorado disproportionately high on Trump’s blue state revenge list.

The problem, of course, is that everything Colorado has done has been legal, and Trump’s retaliation against Colorado for our legal actions is not. The President is prevented several different constitutional means from imposing his political will on states by official actions. What Weiser wants is to link all of these individual adverse actions by the administration by not just their common source, but their common objective–to force Colorado to do Trump’s personal political bidding, at this point principally a question of Tina Peters’ continued incarceration.

Taking the lead in fighting back against Trump is good for Weiser politically as he seeks higher office, but this isn’t a case of legal grandstanding for political gain. Weiser’s request is “novel” for one reason: we’ve never had a President this openly corrupt in our nation’s history. The Founders did anticipate the possibility of such a President, but the constitutional boundaries they put in place have never been tested. Not like this.

And that makes this fight not just politically expedient, but of urgent importance to the whole country.