The radical Left has been turning America’s transportation system into a political football.
But the new Trump administration just put a stop to it.
And Sean Duffy just crushed woke universities with this America First move that left liberals fuming.
President Donald Trump promised to end the DEI agenda that has infected every corner of the federal government.
He’s delivering on that promise with a bold executive order to terminate “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs across all federal departments.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is proving to be one of Trump’s most aggressive cabinet members in implementing the America First agenda.
Duffy, a former Wisconsin Congressman, just took an ax to millions of dollars in wasteful university grants that had nothing to do with actually improving America’s roads, bridges, and transportation systems.
“The previous administration turned the Department of Transportation into the Department of Woke,” Duffy said in announcing the cuts. “I’ve focused the Department on what matters; safety, making travel great again, and building big, beautiful infrastructure projects.”
$54 million in woke university grants terminated
Duffy’s Department of Transportation announced the cancellation of seven university grants totaling $54 million that were funding research on “social justice” issues rather than concrete transportation improvements.
Among the most egregious examples were millions of dollars going to research on whether road improvements are “racist” and studying the “transportation needs” of “gender non-conforming people.”
The University of California, Davis lost a whopping $12 million grant for their “National Center for Sustainable Transportation” which focused on something called “accelerating equitable decarbonization.”
The City College of New York just lost a fat $9 million check for something called the “Center for Social and Economic Mobility.” What were they studying? Something about “equitable transportation for the disadvantaged workforce” – whatever that means.
USC won’t be getting their $9 million anymore either. They’d been pocketing taxpayer cash to figure out if highways and roads are somehow unfair to certain groups. Yes, really – they were studying how “the transportation system creates and perpetuates inequities.”
These ivory tower projects might sound good to left-wing academics, but they do nothing to fix America’s real transportation problems.
Duffy brings a dose of reality to the Department of Transportation
Secretary Duffy made it clear he’s reorienting the department’s focus toward the practical needs of everyday Americans.
“The American people have zero interest in millions of their tax dollars funding research on the intersection of gender non-conforming people and infrastructure inequality or whether road improvement projects are racist,” Duffy stated. “It’s time to inject a dose of reality back into our higher education system, and that starts with ending these wasteful and divisive grants.”
The San Jose State University grant was particularly outrageous. The university had been receiving about $6 million to study “intermodal inequities, particularly how improvements to auto travel can benefit higher income, often white drivers, while depressing transit ridership potential.”
The grant also funded research into “using crowdsourcing and collaborative planning to address safety concerns of women and gender non-conforming people using public transportation.”
Only in left-wing academia could someone get millions to study a concept like “intermodal inequities.”
Fulfilling Trump’s promises to end woke waste
Secretary Duffy’s decisive action is precisely what President Trump promised on the campaign trail. For too long, federal agencies have been funding ideological pet projects under the guise of “research” while America’s real infrastructure needs went unaddressed.
The move is part of the administration’s broader effort to reorient the federal government toward the priorities of working Americans. Under Duffy’s leadership, the Department of Transportation will focus on building and maintaining high-quality infrastructure that benefits everyone, not just special interest groups.
While liberal academics and left-wing activists are predictably outraged, everyday Americans are cheering the decision to redirect these funds toward practical transportation solutions.
Duffy’s message was clear: the Department of Transportation’s job is to improve America’s transportation systems, not to fund ideological research projects that divide Americans along racial and gender lines.
With rising costs hitting American families hard, the last thing taxpayers need is their hard-earned money going to universities to fund studies on whether asphalt is discriminatory.
