A shocking deposition is revealing how the Trump administration’s controversial DOGE program decided which federal research grants would stay and which would be cut. The reason? It seems to be all about “vibes.”
Under oath, DOGE employee Nathan Cavanaugh said he and another coworker personally marked several academic grants as the “craziest” they had ever seen and canceled them, even though they had no experience with grant evaluations, federal research funding, or peer review processes.
When asked why one project was targeted, Cavanaugh didn’t mention fraud, misuse, or bad research.
His reason? The project included “feminist and queer insights.” That was enough to get it canceled.
Another grant, which looked at the experiences of military veterans who are marginalized — including women, Black troops, Native Americans, immigrants, and LGBTQ service members — was also canceled.
Why? Because the description “explicitly says LGBTQ.”
That was the only reason given.
When the lawyer asked Cavanaugh if he had any experience with scholarly peer review or evaluating grants, his answer was straightforward: “No.”
The lawyer then asked if it was okay for someone in their early 20s with no experience in reviewing federal grants to make decisions that could ruin researchers’ careers and end funding for academic work.
Cavanaugh said there was nothing wrong with it.
He claimed that someone could make those calls by simply being “well-informed” through reading books.
The lawyer then asked which books?
Cavanaugh responded, “There were no books.”
The irony gets even worse.
Earlier in the deposition, Cavanaugh said he had no regrets about people losing money and research funds, saying the cuts were meant to reduce the federal deficit.
When asked if those actions actually helped cut the deficit, he admitted they didn’t.
So to sum up: federal research grants were canceled by people with no expertise, no training, no experience in peer review, and no real research — just because some projects mentioned LGBTQ issues or feminism.
And the people making those decisions say there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
That’s why so many people are finally realizing that MAGA actually stands for “Morons Are Governing America.”
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