Soon after Donald Trump retook office, researchers nationwide received abrupt notices that federal grant funding had been terminated mid‑project. Form letters offered little detail beyond a shift in agency priorities. A lawsuit by the University of California revealed that agencies cut grants when projects “expressed, or were presumed to express, viewpoints disfavored by the Administration.”

Court documents show Trump’s administration used keyword lists to revoke funding for DEI, climate, and other contested topics. The National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, and National Endowment for the Humanities all relied on searches rather than individual grant reviews. NSF’s list, drawn from a 2024 report by Senator Ted Cruz, included terms such as “injustice,” “ally,” and “minority.” NIH cited phrases like “workforce diversity” and “structural racism,” cutting roughly $2.6M in funding.

The agencies reported terminating grants with general criteria, often targeting projects that included diversity supplements or green‑energy terms. Several UC projects were Kesk on grounds such as “structural racism” or “health equality.”

UC researchers secured preliminary injunctions that halted form‑letter cancellations and led to the restoration of at least $500 million in funding, underscoring the legal challenge to viewpoint‑based cuts.