Trump administration admits in court why it cancelled hundreds of energy grants. The reason? People voted for Kamala Harris

The Trump administration has acknowledged in court that it cancelled hundreds of federal energy grants because they benefited states won by former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, according to a report by The New York Times. The admission came in a court filing submitted this month as part of a lawsuit brought by several grant recipients challenging the cancellation of billions of dollars in Biden-era funding.

According to the filing, the US Department of Energy (DOE) accepted that the decision to terminate 284 grants was based solely on whether the projects were located in states that voted for Harris and were represented by two Democratic-caucusing senators.

Court filing details selection criteria

An Energy Department lawyer wrote in a July 15 court filing that, with one exception, all of the terminated grants were linked to Democratic-leaning states.

"With one exception, the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing senators," the filing said.

The lawyer further stated that the grants were not cancelled because of program performance, statutory concerns, cost reductions or other operational factors.

"DOE accepts that the inclusion of grants in the October notice tranche was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient's state, i.e., whether the recipient's location and/or place of performance was in a Blue State or a non-Blue State," the filing said.

Nearly all cancelled grants were in Democratic states

According to The New York Times, the Energy Department had initially submitted a list of more than 600 Biden-era grants in both Republican- and Democratic-leaning states for review.

However, in October, the White House Office of Management and Budget, led by Director Russ Vought, cancelled 284 grants, 283 of which were located in Democratic-leaning states. The cancelled projects reportedly included electrical grid upgrades and clean hydrogen hub initiatives in California.

Democrats accuse administration of political retaliation

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, condemned the revelations in a post on X.

"The corrupt Trump administration has just admitted to withholding taxpayer dollars from states based on how they voted," Newsom wrote. "Last I checked we were a democracy, not a dictatorship. Where the hell is Congress?"

Democratic Senator Patty Murray and Representative Marcy Kaptur also criticised the administration, calling the grant cancellations "outright un-American."

"This administration has now admitted in court what has long been obvious: It terminated nearly 300 cost-cutting energy projects for no reason other than the fact that the states they were in did not vote for the president in the 2024 election," the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

They also accused Energy Secretary Chris Wright of contradicting his earlier testimony before Congress. At a House hearing in June, Wright had denied politics played any role in the cancellations, dismissing such allegations as "bull----."

"Secretary Wright swore up and down for months that these project terminations had absolutely nothing to do with politics, and now his lawyers are declaring that, in fact, politics was the only consideration," Murray and Kaptur said.

Energy Department rejects criticism

Despite the court filing, the Energy Department denied that its legal position contradicted previous public statements.

"There is no contradiction, and any suggestion of a contradiction is a misrepresentation of the court filing," Energy Department spokesperson Ben Dietderich told The New York Times. The lawsuits challenging the grant cancellations are ongoing.