Led by the governor, Florida’s government accountability DOGE team is auditing university research projects and even recommending grants for termination.
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape higher education in a conservative mold aren’t just targeting Ivy League elites. They’re stripping millions from Florida universities — and the state’s Republican governor is happy to help.
While institutions like Harvard University and Columbia University are taking heat from the Trump administration, colleges all across the country — including deep red Florida — are feeling the squeeze of sweeping federal research cuts. Florida universities this year saw more than 90 grants terminated across key federal agencies.
Some states are suing the federal government to push back on the downsizing. But Florida, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, has the state’s government accountability DOGE team auditing university research projects and even recommending grants for termination.
“The Trump administration is working hard to get some of the rot out of higher education, the intellectual rot, the ideological rot,” DeSantis said last month during an event in Jacksonville.
Evolving federal policy is poised to shake up what professors are researching through new Trump-era guidelines restricting grants on topics like diversity, equity and inclusion, climate, and misinformation. These wide-ranging shifts are being fought tooth and nail in courts and on Capitol Hill as critics fear Trump’s plan to slash billions in research spending has the potential to stifle American innovation.