TOO WOKE –
July 21, 2025 – Attempting to eliminate funding for certain kinds of “woke” studies, the Trump administration erased hundreds of millions of dollars being used for cancer research. While researchers across the country have lost grants, two of the Trump administration’s political targets— Columbia and Harvard—have been hit especially hard. And across the board, many of these grant terminations appear to be part of the administration’s anti-DEI, anti-trans, and anti-vaccine agendas. Trump officials reportedly maintain a list of “flagged” keywords that they believe should trigger program reviews. In the NIH grants terminated so far, the 50 most common flagged words include trans, expression, diverse, and women. (In a statement following publication, HHS spokesperson William Maloney clarified that the agency is evaluating grants and funding with the goal of “reducing funding for institutions which are more interested in pushing ideological agendas than beneficial medical research.”)
There’s more on the chopping block. Trump wants to defund the National Cancer Institute to below 2014 levels. He wants to “refocus” the CDC on infectious disease surveillance and shut down “duplicative…
