U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) said this morning he believes President Trump has betrayed the Great Lakes region by trying to eliminate funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and other environmental programs, from climate change research to Ohio Sea Grant funding.

“It makes no economic sense. It’s just a betrayal,” Mr. Brown told reporters in the hallway of the National Museum of the Great Lakes before headed into a panel his office convened for him to hear more directly about such concerns from Lake Erie shoreline business leaders, fishermen, Toledo drinking water officials, academic researchers and others.

“The problem is you have a President and a White House who’s hostile to this,” Mr. Brown said.

He noted the Great Lakes region was an important part of the voting bloc that got Mr. Trump elected over his Democratic rival, former U.S. Sen. and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of New York.