The Trump administration ordered freezes on certain federal grants after President Biden massively expanded spending at home and abroad to implement woke ideology and far-left Green New Deal policies, budget analysts say. [emphasis, links added]
A $1.5 million “gender scholars” program in Egypt, a $3 million “girl-centered climate action” program in Brazil, and $790,000 for electric motorcycle charging stations in Uganda are among the dozens of initiatives financed by federal grants that cost American taxpayers billions of dollars under the Biden administration.
Mr. Biden spent record sums on green energy projects, including more than $100 billion in “clean energy” grants.
The Office of Management and Budget cracked down on the spending on Monday. It paused federal grants and assistance that violate Mr. Trump’s executive orders to eliminate government DEI initiatives and Green New Deal policies that seek to end fossil fuels and raise energy costs.
“It means no more funding for illegal DEI programs. It means no more funding for the green new scam that has cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. It means no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness across our federal bureaucracy and agencies. No more funding for Green New Deal social engineering policies,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Extricating DEI and green energy policies from the federal budget won’t be easy.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze Tuesday just minutes before it was to take effect.
The Biden administration worked relentlessly to inject its DEI and green policies into every part of the government.
The federal government spent billions of dollars on domestic DEI grants, including for “equity-centered teacher pipelines,” “STEM equity research hubs,” training for geoscientists to be “justice-centered” and “multiculturally inclusive” chemistry programs.
David Ditch, a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, noted Mr. Trump’s pledge during his campaign to cut government waste.
He said the spending pause aims to end the Biden administration’s saturation of DEI and green energy spending throughout the government.
“A larger reason behind this, which is something most of the mainstream media has not been interested in covering, is the extremely aggressive and ideological approach that the Biden administration took to implementing pretty much any federal spending that was within their control,” Mr. Ditch said.
The National Science Foundation spends significantly on DEI programs and lists them as “a high priority.”
A recent Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee analysis found that more than $2.05 billion in National Science Foundation grants “went to questionable projects that promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion tenets or pushed onto science neo-Marxist perspectives about enduring class struggle.”
The foundation’s spending on DEI skyrocketed during the Biden administration from $14 million in 2021 to $290 million in 2024.
By the time Mr. Biden left office, more than 27% of all National Science Foundation grants were dedicated to DEI initiatives.
The National Endowment for the Arts also targeted spending on climate and DEI. Last year, the NEA awarded a $10,000 grant to drag queen cabaret ice skaters who put on a show about climate change.
The Department of Education awarded more than $1 billion in grants for DEI hiring, programming, and mental health training, according to an analysis from Parents Defending Education, a watchdog group.
The school system in Montgomery County, North Carolina, used some of a $21.5 million grant to improve teacher and principal effectiveness through “equitable instruction” and reducing “inequitable disciplinary practices.”
The U.S. sent billions of dollars overseas to battle climate change and promote DEI initiatives.
The Agency for International Development (USAID) provided more than $45 million to Myanmar, formerly Burma, for DEI scholarships and more than $21 million to Lebanon for renewable electricity.
The State Department gave Australia $56 million for a climate change and LGBTQ journalism project and provided $54 million to Ecuador for training focused on climate change and disinformation.
Read rest at Washington Times
