President Trump’s budget office is directing federal agencies to claw back more than $1.5 billion in grants from Democratic-led states, arguing the money was being mishandled, according to officials cited by The New York Post.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) told the Department of Transportation to cancel more than $943 million, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was ordered to nix at least $602 million intended for New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota, the Post reported.
An OMB spokesperson said the states were being targeted for “waste and mismanagement” of taxpayer funds, according to the report.
Illinois was slated to receive the largest of the transportation-related grants, including $100 million to the state’s Environmental Protection Agency to build electric-vehicle charging stations.
The health-related cancellations included grants tied to research on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives or transgender medicine that was “not in line with administration policy,” according to White House officials.
The OMB spokesperson added that more cancellations were expected.
Among the projects described in the report: New York would lose $15 million for the city Department of Transportation’s EV charging program and another $15 million for a similar project at the State University of New York; Minnesota would lose $15 million for EV chargers in “environmental justice communities”; and Colorado’s Boulder County would lose $4.9 million for chargers in “low and moderate-income neighborhoods.”
Illinois would also forgo $3.6 million for a research study aimed at translating the commercial driver’s license test into Spanish, the Post reported.
Separately, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has threatened to withhold $73 million in highway funds from New York over problems tied to “non-domiciled” CDL issuance uncovered in a federal audit, according to the Transportation Department and reporting on the dispute.
In California, the Post reported, canceled DOT grants included $15 million for an EV charging network in nine counties around San Francisco and $2 million for “climate change adaptation” plans.
More over at The New York Post:
Exclusive | White House instructs DOT, CDC to cut $1.5B in ‘woke,’ green grants for Dem states https://t.co/aipyEsWbVb pic.twitter.com/3OZrVJKJPt
— New York Post (@nypost) February 4, 2026
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