White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/27/white-house-pauses-federal-grants/

37 comments

  1. So, he just defunded the Police, Teachers and Medical professions?

  4. Fire sale!

    I imagine him and his broligarchs are having an auction at Mar-a-lago, bidding on who gets to privatize which agency/department.

  5. Anecdotal so hopefully you brought your salt:

    My spouse and her PhD cohort have completely given up on applying for postdoc positions in the U.S. Even the so-called “patriots” are smart enough to know that no federally funded position is safe. 

    Most of them have accepted enthusiastic offers from Western Europe and Canada. 

    That’s four (and counting) highly educated engineers and research scientists who will not be enriching their own country. 

  6. > In a two-page document, Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, instructs federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.” The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, also calls for each agency to perform a “comprehensive analysis” to ensure its grant and loan programs are consistent with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, which aimed to ban federal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and limit clean energy spending, among other measures.

    > The memo states its orders should not be “construed” to impact Social Security or Medicare recipients, and also says the federal financial assistance put on hold “does not include assistance provided directly to individuals.”

    > But the document says programs affected are “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”

  7. Bye bye science, medicine and education. I’m sure other countries will gladly take the highly qualified individuals who just lost opportunities in this country. Are eggs cheaper yet?

  11. Well let’s all just go ahead and crack open the heads of our neighbors and feast on the goo inside.

  12. He is also provoking random trade wars. The US economy is fucked.

  14. After reading the article, I assume it doesn’t affect FAFSA, right?

  15. Oh. My god. Oh… my god. I knew he was insane, but that’s like shooting your own foot. 

  16. He is going to transfer all the funds to his people and accounts. we are going to be the poorest nation

  18. This is anti-science policy on a level somewhere between Iran and Afganistan. Even if were to last just a week, it’s a clear sign to anyone in academia that the government will NOT be providing a stable framework for research. For any work in fundamental science, astrophysics, medicine, new green tech, this could well be disastrous.

  20. As a person who works in grants, the average person truly has no idea how many programs/services they use that are funded by government grants. Things people think must have nothing to do with the government are funded by government grants.

  21. Congrats Congress, by not doing a thing you’re officially conceding your power.

  23. Literally everything this White House has done since winning the election has sparked confusion for me. Why do they hate everyday Americans so much?

  24. Someone told Trump that the Federal government gives out money for various causes and purposes and he thinks it’s his money being given away or he’s furious he isn’t getting a personal cut of the action.

  25. Why isn’t this pinned in this sub? This is an honest to goodness Constitutional Crisis, you know, the thing that’s been hand wrung about for years now, but hasn’t actually fully happened yet? It’s here.

  26. you know what economy’s really like? instability. love that. definitely wont cause a panic

  27. More like terror. Everyone in the sciences, research, and academia is freaking out. This is the research equivalent of a stock market crash.

  28. A few days before the election, musk said that if Trump wins the election, they will crash the US economy. Most Americans had no idea he said that because the media barely covered it and most people don’t know what’s going on beyond headlines and social media posts.

  29. This is pretty horrific when you read that all programs must adhere to the president’s policy. That’s some serious dictatorial shit. What the fuck are we doing??

  30. What the fuck… this goes into effect tomorrow? And agencies are supposed to have comprehensive reports on all their projects by Feb 10? That’s insane. This is going to hurt millions of Americans, then after the economy collapses the entire nation will suffer.

  31. This is all project 2025. Trump is a useful idiot rubber stamp signing whatever he’s given. He has no clue what he’s signing

  32. Don’t you miss when Biden was in office and you didn’t have hourly updates on how our country is being destroyed?

  33. I am a grants administrator and I’ve been having a panic attack for the past hour, do people understand how bad this is? This is your government being overthrown. 

  34. It’s all going to be transactional.

    Want that grant? What can you do for me?

    The entire country has fallen to the grift.

  35. Okay, Jesus. This needs its own megathread. For anyone smarter than me, what areas could this potentially affect?

  36. I am totally fucked. Gonna lose my whole career. My rural community is fucked. Literally like 90% of funds for community services, schools, healthcare all federal funds. Farmers are fucked. When the fuck are we going to rise up?!

  37. I am making no personal threats, and I am not personally advocating for or condoning violence, but this dude is absolutely gonna get himself assassinated

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