Trump admits $7.5 B clean‑energy grant cuts were political

In court filings released in July 2026, the Trump administration acknowledged that it canceled roughly $7.5 billion in clean‑energy grants solely because the projects were located in states that voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election and were represented by two Democratic senators. Department of Energy principal deputy general counsel Jeff Novak wrote, “With one exception, the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.” The cancellations affected 284 grants out of an original list of 624, sparing projects in Republican‑leaning states. White House Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought announced the cuts on social media, describing the funds as “Green New Scam” money for the left’s climate agenda. Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups called the action a “weaponization” of federal power, saying it jeopardized jobs and delayed critical energy‑infrastructure projects across dozens of states. The admission follows a lawsuit by University of California researchers challenging the partisan use of federal funding.

The revelations raise concerns about the politicization of federal grant‑making and could prompt legislative or judicial scrutiny of the administration’s budgetary authority.