And the Trump administration is ordering a sweeping review of federal funding sent to New Jersey and 13 other Democratic-led states, along with Washington, D.C.

It's a move that's raising fresh concerns about potential political retaliation.

Now a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget directs nearly every federal agency to audit grants, loans, contracts and other funding, except from the Defense and Military Affairs Departments.

OMB says that effort is strictly a data-gathering exercise to identify waste, fraud and abuse and insists no funds will be withheld.

Democrats, though, including Governor Mikey Sherrill, are skeptical, directly calling it political retribution and warning that the information could be used to justify future funding cuts.

The move follows repeated threats by the president to cut off federal money to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions and states, New Jersey among them, all starting February 1st, with those responses on the audits due to agency leadership by the end of this month.

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