Federal agencies within the Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing on Wednesday that they used keyword searches to identify and terminate over 1,000 research grants at the University of California. The targeted keywords included terms such as "diversity," "gender," "vaccine hesitancy," and "COVID-19."
The disclosure came as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by the University of California, which seeks to challenge the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal funding. The administration stated that the screening process was intended to ensure that federal grants aligned with the policy priorities of the executive branch.
Opponents of the move, including university officials, characterized the use of keywords as an ideological filter that disrupts scientific independence. Administration officials maintained that the executive branch holds the authority to review and redirect federal spending toward its stated objectives.