President Trump Reforms the Broken Federal Grantmaking Process
Reforming Federal Grantmaking to put America First
Federal grantmaking involves the allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars each year. In fiscal year 2023, the federal government allocated $202.19 billion for research and development alone. The stewardship of these funds is a sacred trust. U.S. tax dollars must only ever be spent, as necessary, to improve the lives of the American people and to advance U.S. national interests.
Unfortunately, the federal government has completely failed in this regard. During the Biden Administration, federal grant funding ran the gamut from the bizarre (e.g., Serbian cheese production) to the obscene (e.g., drag shows in Ecuador and DEI in Myanmar). President Trump’s new executive order, signed on August 7, 2025, addresses this abuse of U.S tax dollars by bringing new oversight to the federal grantmaking process.
Improved Oversight and Accountability
President Trump’s executive order strengthens accountability and enhances oversight in federal grantmaking. The order creates a multi-level, inter-agency accountability framework. New requirements include:
- Review of all new funding requests by senior appointees.
- Annual review of discretionary awards by subject matter experts.
- Plain language requirements to minimize the need for unnecessary legal or technical expertise.
- Awarding funds to a broader range of recipients.
- Prioritizing discretionary awards to institutions with lower indirect cost rates.
Ending Federal Support for Racial Divisiveness and Gender Insanity
The Biden Administration smuggled its racially divisive DEI agenda into grant funding for scientific projects. According to a 2024 report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 27% of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) grants were directed toward DEI initiatives and to other hyper-politicized projects, including social and environmental “justice” and gender ideology. From January 2021 to April 2024, the NSF awarded 3,484 grants—about 10% of all grants—totaling more than $2.05 billion to DEI related projects alone.
None of these causes are worthy of taxpayer funding. None of them advance the interests of the American people. Accordingly, President Trump has terminated the use of discretionary grant funding to “encourage, subsidize, or facilitate:”
- Racial preferences or racial discrimination.
- Activities using race or proxies for race as a selection criterion for employment or program participation.
- Denying the sex binary in or asserting that sex is a chosen or changeable characteristic.
Putting America and Americans First
President Trump is putting the interests of the American people above those of foreign nations and foreign nationals. Per his recent order, all discretionary awards may no longer support:
- Organizations that provide free services to illegal immigrants.
- Initiatives that compromise public safety or promote anti-American values.
After ending the Biden Administration’s border crisis, President Trump is terminating his predecessor’s indirect support for foreign terrorists, including the drug and human smuggling cartels, through open borders non-governmental organizations. These organizations are responsible for the mass trafficking of millions of illegal migrants across the U.S. southern border and the subjection of untold thousands of migrant women and children to sexual exploitation.