The President’s FY 2027 Budget Request Takes a Sword to Woke and Weaponized Government
President Donald Trump’s first year in office was a tour de force in draining the swamp through a systematic reordering of government to serve the American people. Trump campaigned on closing the book on woke policies and ending the ruthless weaponization of federal agencies against Christians, pro-lifers, business owners, and other ordinary Americans who1 may have run afoul of the Biden–Harris regime.
From a fiscal policy perspective, the Trump administration secured passage of its marquee legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), which made permanent the historic 2017 Trump tax cuts and secured nearly $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings, the highest level of mandatory savings in history and the largest deficit reduction in nearly thirty years.2 The OBBB also expanded the child tax credit to $2,500 per child, removed at least 1.4 million illegal aliens from Medicaid, and implemented work requirements for able-bodied adults on receiving taxpayer-funded benefits. But the administration has also taken a sword to our woke and weaponized federal government, first through executive actions and then through the budget process. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought noted in the opening statement of his April 15 hearing before the House Budget Committee that in 2025 the president “shepherded legislation through Congress that rescinded $9 billion in wasteful and weaponized spending, which was the first standalone rescissions package enacted by Congress since 1992.”3
Included in this historic rescissions package was more than $1 billion in previously allocated taxpayer funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its entities NPR and PBS, which CRA identified in April 2025 as “propaganda outlets for the left” and facilitators of “left-wing control over national conversations.”4
The Trump administration has also taken to task the mechanism for pushing radical gender ideology. CRA’s FY 2023 budget framework called for an end to “gender-affirming care” sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).5 Thanks to Trump’s January 2025 executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,”6 which established the policy recognizing only two sexes, the VA has phased out cross-sex hormone therapy and reinstituted single-sex restrooms and patient rooms.7
The president’s FY 2027 budget offers more cuts to woke and weaponized programs that, if enacted by Congress, would mark a significant step to restoring accountable government and common sense to the executive branch.
FY 2027 Cuts to Woke and Weaponized Government
NASA
The president’s FY 2027 budget takes direct aim at the misuse of NASA’s Science and STEM programs, cutting funding for initiatives that have strayed from the agency’s core mission. The budget reduces spending by $3.4 billion on Science programs, including efforts such as the SERVIR initiative, a $10 million annual partnership through USAID that imposed climate extremism on developing countries under the guise of environmental monitoring. It also scales back NASA’s STEM Engagement office by $143 million, eliminating funding for programs such as the Minority University Research and Education Project, which funneled millions into initiatives centered on “diversity in engineering” and “Data Science Equity, Access, and Priority” at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.8 The president’s budget also cuts K–12 programming that has shown limited impact on student outcomes and is better handled at the state and local level. These reforms closely reflect CRA’s FY 2023 budget, which called for a 50 percent reduction in NASA’s Science spending and the elimination of duplicative, federally funded STEM initiatives that exist elsewhere in government.9
Department of Commerce
The president’s FY 2027 budget delivers significant reforms at the Department of Commerce by targeting programs that have drifted into climate activism and race-based policymaking. The budget cuts $449 million from the Economic Development Administration (EDA), eliminating programs that functioned as vehicles for political earmarks and subsidies for leftist initiatives promoting “racial equity” and Green New Scam priorities. It also reduces funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by $1.6 billion, terminating grants that advanced climate extremism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming, and ideological education efforts, including fellowships on “equity climate and health” and workshops centered on gender identity.10 These actions align closely with CRA’s FY 2023 budget, which called for the elimination of EDA’s race-based grantmaking programs and a substantial reduction in NOAA funding to end its pernicious pilot programs promoting “climate justice.”11
Department of Agriculture
The president’s FY 2027 budget advances reforms at the Department of Agriculture by cutting $510 million from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), targeting formula grants that have functioned as de facto earmarks for ideologically driven, left-wing projects.12 These grants have previously funded initiatives far removed from the agency’s core mission of helping America steward its food, farmland, and natural resources, including research on the “Clothing Needs of Transgender People” and projects promoting “environmental injustice” and climate activism.13 Likewise, CRA’s FY 2023 budget called for significant reductions to NIFA after documenting a pattern of grants advancing woke activism through “food justice.” CRA also noted that NIFA distributed a $200,000 grant to the University of Florida to “enhance diversity” in food economics and sent $350,000 for “indigenous community food projects” to the George Soros–backed Tides Center.14
Department of Energy
The president’s FY 2027 budget delivers sweeping reforms at the Department of Energy by dismantling progressive pet projects designed to drive America into a post-petroleum age. The budget builds on the administration’s shuttering of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) office, which had become a hub for Green New Scam policies and burdensome regulations, including efforts targeting everyday consumer products like gas stoves and light bulbs.15 EERE funding had supported projects such as a $3 million “Energy Justice” study at the University of Rhode Island, a $14 million DEI-focused solar workforce initiative, and a $17 million project at Stanford University to build an “equitable” nationwide energy transition.16 By eliminating these programs, the budget restores focus to energy policies that prioritize affordability, reliability, and American energy independence. These actions closely reflect CRA’s FY 2023 budget, which proposed a nearly 75 percent reduction in EERE spending to end taxpayer support for climate-driven and equity-based energy programs.17
The budget further reforms the department by cutting $1.1 billion from the Office of Science and eliminating funding for climate change research and DEI-driven grantmaking.18 It redirects resources toward strategic priorities such as artificial intelligence, quantum science, and critical minerals while ending programs such as the Minority Serving Institutions for the Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce initiative, which promoted race-based preferences in hiring in the physical sciences. The budget also reduces funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA–E) by $150 million, realigning it away from Green New Scam priorities and toward mission-oriented innovation. These reforms further align with CRA’s FY 2023 budget, which called for reductions to the Office of Science, the elimination of its requirement that grant applicants submit Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research (PIER) Plans, and the termination of ARPA–E.19
Environmental Protection Agency
CRA’s 2023 article “10 Examples of Weaponized Government” described how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was used against Joe Robertson, a seventy-seven-year-old Navy veteran who was wrongfully imprisoned for eighteen months and fined $130,000 for constructing ponds on his remote property to fight forest fires without a permit.20 The president’s FY 2027 budget delivers a decisive rollback of the EPA’s “environmental justice” agenda, eliminating funding for programs that have promoted divisive racial preferences, climate activism, and overzealous prosecutions.21 CRA’s FY 2023 budget called for the complete elimination of EPA environmental justice programs.22
Department of Labor
The president’s FY 2027 budget advances reforms at the Department of Labor by eliminating ineffective workforce programs and refocusing resources on policies that deliver real outcomes for American workers. The budget cuts $1.6 billion from Job Corps, a program plagued by violence, drug abuse, and poor workforce results despite per-participant costs reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars and average post-program earnings barely above the poverty line.23 It also reduces funding for the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) by $46 million, reorienting the agency away from grants promoting woke projects abroad and toward enforcing labor standards that protect American workers from unfair foreign competition in trade deals.24 These actions closely align with CRA’s FY 2023 budget, which called for the elimination of Job Corps due to its high costs, safety failures, and weak employment outcomes, as well as a significant reduction in ILAB to end its focus on global “equity” initiatives and refocus its mission on advancing the interests of American workers.25
Department of the Treasury
The president’s FY 2027 budget advances sweeping reforms at the Department of the Treasury by curbing the weaponization of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and refocusing financial assistance programs on their core mission. The budget cuts $1.4 billion from the IRS, addressing an agency that has expanded dramatically in recent years and has been repeatedly accused of targeting Americans based on their political beliefs while failing to protect taxpayer information.26 The president’s budget also reduces funding for the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund by $204.5 million, redirecting resources away from programs that have been used to advance partisan and ideological priorities. In recent years, CDFI-funded initiatives have supported race-based lending practices and financed projects that supported illegal immigration, gender ideology, and climate extremism, including programs such as “immigration detention bonds” and taxpayer-backed funding for gender-transition services. These reforms closely align with recommendations in CRA’s FY 2023 budget, which called for significant reductions to the IRS to halt its pattern of political targeting and restore fairness in tax administration.27 CRA also proposed eliminating CDFI discretionary grant programs, arguing that the industry has matured and should rely on private capital rather than taxpayer subsidies, particularly because those funds have increasingly been directed toward ideological causes unrelated to economic development.
Department of Justice
The president’s FY 2027 budget reins in perhaps the most woke and weaponized department during the Biden administration: the Department of Justice (DOJ). The budget eliminates the Community Relations Service (CRS), which was dedicated to “preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, incidents, and civil disorders, and in restoring racial stability and harmony.”28 The Budget also delivers sweeping reforms to DOJ grantmaking, cutting $1.7 billion by eliminating nearly thirty duplicative and weaponized grant programs with histories of funding initiatives centered on “equity and liberation,” “structural racism,” and the study of “anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime reporting,” as well as support for groups promoting policies such as no cash bail that undermine public safety. By ending these woke grant programs, the president’s budget halts the use of taxpayer dollars to subsidize activism that distorts the justice system and instead refocuses resources on reducing violent crime and protecting communities. These reforms closely align with CRA’s FY 2023 budget, which called for the complete defunding of CRS and for reforms to DOJ grant programs to disqualify recipients promoting equity-driven and ideologically motivated agendas.29
Department of Education
The president’s FY 2027 budget advances major reforms at the Department of Education by eliminating programs that have been used to indoctrinate children with radical gender ideology and critical race theory. The budget saves taxpayers $7 million by cutting Equity Assistance Centers, which have been used to push Washington-directed DEI mandates onto school districts through “equity audits,” anti-racism training, and materials instructing educators on concepts like white supremacy.30 These centers have operated as enforcement arms of a leftist ideological agenda, pressuring local educators to adopt policies with no conceivable connection to improving academic performance. CRA’s deep-dive research on the Department of Education for the FY 2023 budget revealed that Equity Assistance Centers used taxpayer funding to train teachers to “socially transition” students without their parents’ knowledge.31 The president’s proposed reforms closely align with CRA’s FY 2023 budget proposal, which recommended eliminating the Equity Assistance Centers due to their roles as vehicles for forcing anti-American, DEI-driven political agendas into public schools.
The president’s budget also saves $890 million by eliminating the English Language Acquisition program, a misnamed initiative that has de-emphasized English proficiency by providing grants to NGOs and states that promote bilingualism and progressive educational programming.32 In practice, these funds have supported the development and distribution of activist course materials, including a “newcomer toolkit” that portrayed illegal immigration as a “healthy contribution to democracy.”33 CRA’s research showed that the English Language Acquisition program also distributed multimillion-dollar grants to the University of Arkansas and the University of Massachusetts for “learner equity via advocacy” and “centering relationships, equity, and access” for teachers.34
Department of State and Other International Programs
The president’s FY 2027 budget advances sweeping reforms to international spending by eliminating funding for programs and institutions that have long operated at odds with America First interests. CRA’s FY 2023 budget flagged Global Health foreign aid as an arm of the Biden administration’s abortion and LGBTQ agenda and called for appropriate funding reductions.35 The president’s budget reduces funding to Global Health programs by $4.3 billion, reforming it to fund truly lifesaving assistance and transition recipient countries to self-reliance in line with the State Department’s newly released America First Global Health Strategy. American foreign aid had long been a vehicle for exporting progressive ideological and cultural agendas to the Global South. The president’s budget ensures that no taxpayer funding sent abroad supports “abortion, unfettered access to birth control, and also eliminates funding for circumcision and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer services.”
The budget also eliminates U.S. funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and cuts $2.7 billion from contributions to international organizations, including United Nations peacekeeping operations. CRA’s 2023 “Budget in Focus” article covering the State Department and foreign aid noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S.-funded WHO “repeatedly amplified Chinese propaganda about the origins of the virus and actively worked to cover up Chinese complicity in its spread.”36 The president’s budget also fully defunds the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an unaccountable quasigovernmental entity that has funded ideological NGOs and engaged in efforts to “destabilize sovereign governments with whom the United States is not at war.”37 CRA wrote at length in a February 2025 primer about NED’s role as a “leading tool for neoconservative nation-building” and called for its defunding.38 The president’s budget aligns closely with CRA’s FY 2023 budget, which called for reducing Global Health spending tied to abortion and gender ideology, ending U.S. participation in UN Peacekeeping, the WHO, PAHO, and other international organizations that undermine our national sovereignty.39
Department of War
The president’s FY 2027 budget restores the focus on warfighting at the Department of War by eliminating programs and mandates that have undermined military readiness and cohesion. The budget removes department offices and personnel dedicated to developing and implementing DEI policies, halts the use of official resources for initiatives such as Pride Month observances, and divests from advisory boards tied to diversity and climate change agendas.40 It also dismantles the department’s climate portfolio, eliminating funding for electric vehicle programs, climate research, and climate-related exercises and simulations that have diverted attention from core warfighting priorities. These reforms return the military to its primary mission of defending the nation by prioritizing strength, unity, and operational effectiveness over ideological programming. CRA’s FY 2023 budget called for many of these reforms at the department, including prohibiting funding for critical race theory and climate-related indoctrination as well as eliminating DEI offices and personnel that inject divisive ideology into the armed forces at the expense of unit cohesion and combat readiness.41
Department of Housing and Urban Development
The president’s FY 2027 budget advances sweeping reforms at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by eliminating programs that have been used to fund ideological projects and expand federal overreach into local community governance. The budget cuts $3.3 billion by eliminating the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, which has long functioned as a vehicle for wasteful spending and left-wing policy experimentation rather than targeted assistance.42 CDBG funds have supported projects such as brewery upgrades, concert plazas, and local “equity officer” positions while requiring state and local governments to adopt “equity” frameworks and diversity mandates as conditions of funding. CRA called for the elimination of CDBG in its FY 2023 budget.43 By ending this program, the budget restores responsibility for community development to states and localities and ensures that federal housing dollars are no longer used to subsidize ideological agendas handed down from Washington elites.
The budget also refocuses HUD’s housing programs by eliminating or scaling back initiatives that have promoted identity politics and weaponized federal authority against American communities. It cuts $529 million by eliminating the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program, which has funded organizations advancing race-based and gender-focused activism, and reduces “fair housing” activities by $60 million, including the elimination of the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP).44 These programs have directed taxpayer dollars to partisan nonprofits that advocate against single-family neighborhoods and promote radical equity policies disconnected from HUD’s statutory mission. By narrowing HUD’s focus to enforcing the Fair Housing Act and ending funding for these activities, the budget ensures that American families are not used as variables for progressive social experiments. These changes mirror CRA’s FY 2023 budget, which warned of HUD’s increasingly weaponized posture toward American suburbs and called for reforms to rein in fair housing programs that have been used to impose ideological priorities on local communities.45
Department of Health and Human Services
Few areas better illustrate the prior administration’s misuse of federal authority than the Department of Health and Human Services, where scientific research and public health programs were increasingly subordinated to woke aims. The president’s FY 2027 budget reverses that trajectory by eliminating or restructuring key institutions that had become vehicles for advancing race- and gender-based frameworks in medicine. CRA’s August 2025 primer on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) revealed how the institutes had become captured by woke ideology.46 For example, the National Library of Medicine published an observational study on its website entitled “Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth After 2 Years of Hormones,” which resulted in the deaths of two participants when they committed suicide.47 The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities devoted taxpayer funding to research topics like “structural racism” and comparing sexually transmitted infections in “transgender women.”48 And the John E. Fogarty International Center spent taxpayer money surveying how Buddhism creates “HIV-stigma” in Thailand and evaluating “Friendship Benches” for women who use methamphetamine in Vietnam.49
The president’s budget tracks CRA’s FY 2023 recommendations by defunding many of these profligate and woke aspects within the NIH, including the Fogarty International Center, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.50 In addition, the president’s budget defunds the woke grant programs within the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality, which awarded Seattle Children’s Hospital a grant of $142,182 for “Using telehealth to improve access to gender-affirming care for BIPOC and rural gender-diverse youth,” according to the 2025 CRA primer.51 Taken together, these actions represent a deliberate reorientation of federal health research toward programs that actually improve health outcomes for Americans.
Department of Homeland Security
During the Biden administration, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was turned against American citizens though the agency’s Election Integrity Partnership, a public–private partnership that sought to monitor and censor political speech online under the guise of curbing misinformation and propaganda. CRA’s FY 2023 budget called for an overhaul of CISA’s funding and purpose to end its meddling in domestic political activity.52 The president’s FY 2027 budget corrects this course by cutting $707 million from CISA and reorienting the agency toward its proper role: defending federal networks and safeguarding critical infrastructure.53 The budget dismantles CISA as a hub of the censorship industrial complex by eliminating programs committed to combating disinformation and offices dedicated to external and stakeholder engagement.
Conclusion
The FY 2027 budget shows what it looks like to follow through. Across agencies, it moves to shut down programs that have drifted from their purpose, rein in spending that does not produce results, and refocus government on its core responsibilities, including cutting woke and weaponized uses of federal funding that have undermined public trust. It also reflects something more important than any single cut. Many of these reforms line up with work that has already been done to identify where federal programs have gone off track, including CRA’s budget analysis. If Congress adopts these proposals, it would mark real progress toward a federal government that is more disciplined, more accountable, and more focused on doing the job it was created to do.
Endnotes
1. 50 Wins in the One Big Beautiful Bill, THE WHITE HOUSE (June 3, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/06/50-wins-in-the-one-big-beautiful-bill/.
2. MYTHBUSTER: The One Big Beautiful Bill Cuts Spending, Deficit—and That’s a Fact, THE WHITE HOUSE (June 4, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/06/mythbuster-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-cuts-spending-deficit-and-thats-a-fact/.
3. RUSSELL VOUGHT, Dir., Off. of Mgmt. & Budget, Statement Before the H. Comm. on The President’s Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request (Apr. 15, 2026), https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/119136/witnesses/HHRG-119-BU00-Wstate-VoughtR-20260415.pdf.
4. CRA Staff, Primer: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting — Propaganda Machine, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM. (Apr. 8, 2025), https://americarenewing.com/issues/primer-the-corporation-for-public-broadcasting-propaganda-machine/.
5. CRA Staff, FY2023 Budget: Center for Renewing America, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM. (Aug. 1, 2023), https://americarenewing.com/issues/fy2023-budget-center-for-renewing-america/.
6. Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, Exec. Order No. 14,168, 90 Fed. Reg. 8615 (Jan. 20, 2025).
7. VA to Phase Out Treatment for Gender Dysphoria, U.S. DEP’T OF VETERANS AFFS. (Mar. 17, 2025), https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-to-phase-out-treatment-for-gender-dysphoria/.
8. Office of Mgmt. & Budget, Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2027 68-69 (2026), https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/budget_fy2027.pdf.
9. CRA Staff, A Commitment to End Woke and Weaponized Government, 2023 Budget Proposal, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM. (2023), https://americarenewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Budget-Center-for-Renewing-America-FY23.pdf.
10. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 8-9.
11. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 80.
12. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 4.
13. About USDA, U.S. DEP’T OF AGRIC. (2026), https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/general-information/our-agency.
14. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 74.
15. Rachel Frazin, Energy Department reorganizes, a move it says will help it align with Trump priorities, THE HILL (Nov. 20, 2025), https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5616030-energy-department-trump-wright/.
16. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 16.
17. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 72.
18. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 17.
19. Id.
20. CRA Staff, 10 Examples of Weaponized Government, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM. (Feb. 14, 2023), https://americarenewing.com/10-examples-of-weaponized-government/.
21. Id., 63-64.
22. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 68.
23. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 8-9.
24. Id. at 42-43.
25. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 61.
26. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 53-54.
27. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 57.
28. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 39.
29. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 13-14.
30. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 13.
31. CRA Staff, CRA Budget in Focus: Department of Education, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM. (Feb. 22, 2023), https://americarenewing.com/cra-budget-in-focus-department-of-education/.
32. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 13.
33. Id.
34. CRA Staff, CRA Budget in Focus: Department of Education, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM. (Feb. 22, 2023), https://americarenewing.com/cra-budget-in-focus-department-of-education/.
35. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 47.
36. CRA Staff, CRA Budget in Focus: Department of State and Foreign Aid, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM. (Apr. 11, 2023), https://americarenewing.com/issues/cra-budget-in-focus-department-of-state-and-foreign-aid/.
37. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 48.
38. CRA Staff, Primer: The National Endowment for Democracy and an NGO Ecosystem Actively Undermining America, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM (Feb. 7, 2025), https://americarenewing.com/primer-the-national-endowment-for-democracy-and-an-ngo-ecosystem-actively-undermining-america/.
39. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 44.
40. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 62.
41. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 39.
42. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 30.
43. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 32.
44. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 32.
45. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 33.
46. Nikolaus Schuster, Primer: The National Institutes of Health: A Clinic of Woke Weaponization, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM. (Aug. 19, 2025), https://americarenewing.com/issues/primer-the-national-institutes-of-health-a-clinic-of-woke-weaponization/.
47. Id.
48. Id.
49. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 22.
50. Id.
51. Nikolaus Schuster, Primer: The National Institutes of Health: A Clinic of Woke Weaponization, CNTR. FOR RENEWING AM. (Aug. 19, 2025), https://americarenewing.com/issues/primer-the-national-institutes-of-health-a-clinic-of-woke-weaponization/.
52. 2023 Budget Proposal, supra note 9, at 19.
53. Budget of the U.S. Government, supra note 8, at 27.