Apparently once we make America great again, it will have no place for victims of domestic violence. The Intercept has a devastating account of the effect of Trump’s proposed budget cuts for legal aid groups on women who are victims of domestic violence (and of course, this also will affect many others who need access to such services).

The Intercept reports “…the proposed budget eliminates the 43-year-old Legal Services Corporation, the federal entity that provides millions for state-based legal aid operations. Cutting its funding would deny millions of poor people access to the civil justice system, a circumstance that would disproportionately impact women, who make up 70 percent of clients served by LSC funds. Indeed, fully one-third of cases handled by LSC-affiliated groups involve women, like Sonota, who are victims of domestic violence.”

The reason for cutting federal funding for legal aid services that help so many? Dumb question. Do you need nuclear weapons to protect victims of domestic violence? No? Military force? No? In that case, of course, its better left to the states and local governments.

The Intercept piece also cites research that shows that legal-aid services are more effective at protecting women from future incidents of domestic violence than other resources (e.g., shelters, domestic violence hotlines, and counseling programs). This is largely because they help women with practical, long-term issues (such as protective orders, custody, and child support), which empowers them and allows them to build independent lives.  Not that we would ever accuse of anyone in Trump’s budgeting inner circle of even sniffing at any research that’s conduced outside the Heritage Foundation.