Trump Axes Waste: EO Demands Oversight to End Absurd Federal Grants

President Trump signed Executive Order "Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking" on August 7, 2025, mandating political appointees review all federal grants to eliminate waste and align spending with America First priorities. "Every tax dollar the Government spends should improve American lives or advance American interests," the order states, slamming past allocations for propagating "absurd ideologies" and risking national security.

Agency heads must designate senior appointees to scrutinize funding announcements and discretionary awards, ensuring they advance Presidential goals like border security and economic strength. Reviews include multi-level checks for redundancy, annual progress assessments, and a halt on new opportunities until processes are implemented. OMB will revise guidance to cap administrative costs and allow termination of misaligned grants.

This crackdown targets egregious past grants, such as:

• USAID's $20,600 for drag shows in Ecuador promoting LGBTQ agendas abroad.
• NSF funding millions for transgender sexual education programs and critical race theory training for doctoral candidates.
• Over 25% of 2024 NSF grants to DEI initiatives pushing Marxism, class warfare, and anti-American propaganda in schools.
• NIH's $600,000+ to EcoHealth Alliance for gain-of-function research at Wuhan's unsafe lab, likely sparking COVID-19.
• NSF millions developing AI censorship tools for social media.
• Grants to NGOs providing free services to illegal immigrants, fueling the border crisis.
• Funding organizations undermining U.S. interests overseas.
• Non-reproducible research scandals at Harvard and Stanford involving falsified data.
• Excessive administrative overheads siphoning funds from actual projects.

By enforcing "Gold Standard Science" and prioritizing efficient recipients, the EO ensures taxpayer dollars build American prosperity, not fund radical nonsense or foreign threats.