Trump steers US grants away from ‘far-left’ initiatives

The order – issued in early August – affects the lead government bodies funding emergency response, scientific research and health studies.

The order will enable grants to be terminated at short notice, and researchers believe the snap ruling could undermine the US’s leadership in research and development.

Agencies will not be able to announce new funding until the new protocols are in place.

In a preface to the proclamation, Trump said the ruling would “improve the process of Federal grantmaking while ending offensive waste of tax dollars”, flagging a redirection of funds to support his preferred policies.

In saying tax dollars should “improve American lives or … interests”, Trump took aim at funding for drag shows in Ecuador, support for critical race theory and funding for transgender sex education programs.

Trump singled out the National Science Foundation for spending about 25 per cent of its grants program on diversity, equity and inclusion and took aim at “other far-left initiatives” for promoting “Marxism, class warfare propaganda, and other anti-American ideologies in the classroom, masked as rigorous and thoughtful investigation”.

He also railed against funding for a Wuhan lab he blamed for the spread of covid-19, and against grants supporting an AI system aimed at censoring social media, which he described as “a direct assault on free speech”.

And he signalled his dislike of funds supporting “free services to illegal immigrants, worsening the border crisis and compromising our safety, and to organizations that actively worked against American interests abroad”.

The preface to Trump’s order also took aim at researchers at top-ranked universities, attacking the results of scientific research as well as spending on “university facilities and administrative costs”.

Long-serving Californian Democrat Zoe Lofgren attacked the decision.

“This executive order is nothing short of obscene," said Lofgren.

"In what world does Donald Trump think that Americans want political appointees – who, need I remind the president, are unelected bureaucrats – making decisions on what science gets funded? This means that Elon Musk's wayward DOGE cronies, like Big Balls, could be standing between you and a cutting-edge cancer-curing clinical trial. This means someone who has made millions lobbying for chemical companies could block research into the dangers of pesticides, PFAS, microplastics – the list goes on. This is wrong. Americans will pay the price. We must not accept this corruption as our new normal.”

The president of the peak body for US researchers, Matt Owens of the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR), called on the Trump administration to reverse course rather than require “all federal grants be approved by Trump-appointed politicals [sic]”.

“Civil servants and subject matter experts have long carried out this role in order to remain unbiased and apolitical,” Owens said.

“This irresponsible order severely harms federal research grantmaking as our nation seeks to preserve its global leadership position. We urge the administration to reverse course on this order and other harmful actions it has taken that sacrifice America’s competitive advantage in science and innovation.”

Grants strategist Julie Assel – who runs a grantwriting and management business in Missouri – took to LinkedIn to dismantle Trump’s case for changing the rules.

She hoped that readers “will not be swayed to the belief that those who receive federal funds are trying to defraud the American taxpayer”.

“Grant funding already improves American lives or advances American interests,” she said.

“I don’t always agree with how it is done, because that is how compromise works when you have a large country with a variety of views on nearly every subject. But I do believe grant funding should improve the lives of the majority of Americans, not just those who have the money and power to influence the party in the White House.”

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