BUZZ
Scholar says president’s directive is really ‘in the service of white Christian supremacy’
President Donald Trump directed federal agency leaders to increase oversight of taxpayer-funded grants in an executive order Thursday, noting that past funding has gone to “drag shows in Ecuador” and the promotion of DEI.
However, some scholars blasted the order, with one describing it as “in the service of white Christian supremacy and misogyny.”
“Every tax dollar the Government spends should improve American lives or advance American interests,” the order states.
In recent years, however, taxpayer-funded grants have been used to fund “drag shows in Ecuador,” promote critical race theory, DEI, and Marxism, and develop “transgender-sexual-education programs,” according to the order.
In an effort to stop funding “anti-American ideologies in the classroom,” the order directs agency leaders to appoint a senior staffer to create a grant review process.
These new leaders will be tasked with ensuring the projects funded by Americans’ tax dollars are “consistent with agency priorities and the national interest.”
This means Trump’s “political appointees, not career bureaucrats,” will be the ones “to sign off on all government grants,” Real Clear Politics reports.
Along with ideologically problematic projects, the Trump administration also “believes a lack of transparency has allowed taxpayer dollars to pay for projects that endanger national security and the nation’s standing on the world stage,” according to the report:
A senior White House official pointed RCP to federal funding from the National Institute of Health that flowed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese research lab where U.S. intelligence agencies believe the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated. The official also singled out programming from the National Science Foundation to develop artificial intelligence tools, which Republicans allege will supercharge censorship online.
While the administration describes the new executive order as a way to democratize the grantmaking process, the White House stressed that reviews will continue to be done in coordination with subject matter experts. They will, however, become less opaque. The order requires agencies to make announcements related to funding opportunities in plain language.
The directive is being met with criticism by some scholars and research advocates, according to Science:
Although many changes described in the order are already underway at research agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation (NSF), its existence could strengthen the hand of Trump appointees, says Carrie Wolinetz, a former senior administrator at NIH.
“We’ve already seen this administration take steps to exert its authority that have resulted in delays, freezes, and termination of billions of dollars in grants,” says Wolinetz, now a lobbyist for Lewis-Burke Associates. “This would codify those actions in a way that represents the true politicization of science, which would be a really bad idea.”
Meanwhile, Angela Rasmussen, a virologist and non-resident affiliate of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security, blasted the order on her substack.
Rasmussen described the changes as “some of the most vicious, depraved, and illegal bullshit to be issued in the Trump administration’s War on Science.”
“If enacted, it will devastate science, health, and the economy,” she wrote, adding that she believes the order is “in the service of white Christian supremacy and misogyny.”
Also on Thursday, Trump signed an executive order related to college admissions transparency.
As Politico reports:
Education Secretary Linda McMahon then announced the National Center for Education Statistics will collect granular data from higher education institutions about the race and gender of their applicants, plus admitted and enrolled students at the undergraduate level and for “specific graduate and professional programs.”
According to the Education Department, that data will also include students’ standardized test scores, GPAs and other applicant characteristics.
Previously, the agency had only collected the racial breakdown of enrolled students, not applicants or admittees.
The order cites the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which struck down race-based admissions practices.
MORE: ‘Whitelash’: Professors say white students frustrated by ‘anti-racist education’
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference from Mar-a-Lago; White House/YouTube
