October 9, 2025Trump Is Using the Shutdown to Supercharge His War on Equity

As the federal government shutdown stretches into its second week, President Donald Trump is targeting nearly $30 billion in cuts to federal funding almost exclusively to Democratic states and cities. The impact of the cuts to public transit, energy projects, and fundamental civil rights programs could carry far-reaching harms across the nation and the economy. The cuts are the next step in the implementation of executive orders issued by Trump that strive to eradicate policies that advance racial and gender equity, tackle the climate crisis, and threaten the fossil fuel industry. "When the Biden-Harris administration came in, they did not just create plans in a vacuum, they went and listened to people in the community” to learn what projects were needed, “and financing flowed from those discussions,” Michele Roberts of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance. The programs included projects to address historic and ongoing environmental racism and injustices, and the disproportionate health and economic burdens in Black and Brown communities that followed.