Trump admin cuts additional $1M in federal funding for ‘transgender animal’ experiments

First on Fox: President Donald Trump’s National Institute of Health on Friday quietly cut over $1 million in federally funded research evaluating if rats going through hormone therapy were more likely to overdose on a popular party drug. 

The DEI-funded NIH grant was first exposed in December 2024 by the White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit organization that researches and reveals the misuse of taxpayer dollars for animal testing. The nonprofit last year revealed over $10 million in taxpayer money was spent on research creating “transgender animals.”

As Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) expose and cut mismanaged federal funds, the Trump administration has now cut ten “transgender animal” research grants unveiled by the White Coat Waste Project. 

“This is a great victory for taxpayers and animals,” Anthony Bellotti, president and founder of White Coat Waste Project, said. “We’re proud that our blockbuster investigation has prompted the Trump administration to slash millions in DEI funds and other wasteful spending earmarked for creating transgender lab animals through sterilization, hormone therapies, and invasive surgeries and then subjecting them to drug overdoses, open wounds, electroshocks, and other painful and deadly experiments.”

$10M IN TAXPAYER FUNDS SPENT CREATING TRANSGENDER ANIMALS: REP. NANCY MACE

President Donald Trump’s National Institute of Health on Friday quietly cut over $1 million in federally funded research evaluating if rats going through hormone therapy were more likely to overdose on a popular party drug. (Getty/AP)

“Despite the mainstream media’s shameful misinformation campaign, transgender animal experiments are real – and really wasteful,” Bellotti added. “The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”

DOGE SAYS SEVEN GRANTS FOR TRANS ANIMAL TESTING CANCELED, AUDITS EXPANDED: ‘SHADY EXPENDITURES HAPPENING’

The University of Pacific Stockton was granted over $1 million for the project, “GHB Toxicokinetics: Role of sex hormone dependent monocarboxylate transporter regulation and potential for altered overdose risk in transgender men and women,” running from April 1, 2020, through March 31, 2025. DOGE cut the program early on March 21.

The grant was funded by the NIH’s Support of Competitive Research (SCORE) Program, which aims to increase research at institutions that have “an explicitly stated mission or historical track records in graduating students from groups nationally underrepresented in biomedical research.”

The University of Pacific Stockton was granted over $1 million for the project. (iStock)

The White Coat Waste Project obtained the project’s grant application through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which revealed plans to castrate male rats and inject them with estrogen, remove female rats’ ovaries and inject them with testosterone, and then inject the rats with Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB). GHB is used as a recreational party drug and is associated with “chemsex” for its euphoric and sedative effects.

The project set out to “characterize GHB toxicokinetics and toxicity in the absence of sex hormones and in response to sex and cross-sex hormone therapy in males and females” to determine if hormone replacement increased overdose risk in transgender men and women.

President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The White Coat Waste Project has worked with legislators to inform the public and received recognition from the president in the process. The nonprofit testified before the House Oversight Committee last month during the hearing, “Transgender Lab Rats and Poisoned Puppies: Oversight of Taxpayer-Funded Animal Cruelty.”

While delivering opening remarks on the misuse of taxpayer money funding “gender-affirming care” for animals, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., mentioned the latest “transgender animal” research funding cut by the Trump administration. 

“We spent over $1 million to find out if female rats receiving testosterone therapy were more likely to overdose on a date rape drug,” Mace said last month. 

Rep. Nancy Mace asks questions during the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing at the Capitol in Washington, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

“At our House Oversight Committee hearing last month, we exposed cruel, taxpayer-funded transgender animal experiments,” Mace told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

“We uncovered how NIH wasted over a million dollars studying whether female rats – after having their ovaries removed and being injected with testosterone to mimic transgender men – were more likely to overdose on a date rape drug. President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency are now shutting down these appalling and inhumane experiments the Biden administration chose to fund with your hard-earned tax dollars,” Mace added. 

Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, celebrated the $1 million in federal funding cut for transgender research on animals, thanking Trump and DOGE for eliminating this “wacky pseudoscience.”

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“Since last year, I’ve exposed how the Biden administration got caught in the woke mousetrap and wasted millions of tax dollars on transgender animal experiments,” Ernst said. “I’m grateful that President Trump and DOGE are eliminating this wacky pseudoscience. Together, we are ending the silly science and ensuring that all studies funded by tax dollars are squeaky clean.”