Trump and DeSantis just delivered one strategic move against woke universities that left leftist academics reeling

The ivory towers of higher education have been pushing radical leftist propaganda for decades.

But President Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis finally found a way to fight back.

And Trump and DeSantis just delivered one strategic move against woke universities that left leftist academics reeling.

Trump and DeSantis unite to drain the academic swamp

The Swamp isn’t just in Washington, D.C. – it’s also infecting America’s college campuses with Marxist ideology disguised as “research.”

President Trump knew this when he took office, which is why he’s systematically dismantling the woke infrastructure that’s been poisoning young minds for years.

But what makes this even more powerful is that Trump found the perfect ally in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

While other states are filing lawsuits to protect their precious woke research grants, DeSantis is doing something completely different.

He’s actively helping Trump clean house.

“The Trump administration is working hard to get some of the rot out of higher education, the intellectual rot, the ideological rot,” DeSantis declared during a Jacksonville event.¹

This isn’t just tough talk – it’s backed up by real action that’s already making radical professors panic.

The numbers that have woke academics terrified

Here’s what Trump and DeSantis have accomplished so far, and these numbers will make your head spin.

More than 90 federal grants have been cancelled by various federal departments in Florida alone.

That’s over $170 million in federal funding that was going toward leftist propaganda projects masquerading as “research.”

The best part? At least $80 million of that was already committed money that got yanked right out from under these woke academics.²

Take the University of South Florida, for example.

They were celebrating a nearly $15 million EPA grant that was supposed to bring improvements to an underserved community.

Sounds noble, right?

Wrong.

The project got scrapped because it was loaded with radical environmental justice language and terms like “climate change,” “disadvantaged,” and “minority” – all buzzwords for the Left’s socialist agenda.

But here’s where it gets really interesting.

The EPA actually gave USF a chance to save their grant by removing those woke terms from the proposal.

Even after they tried to clean it up, the agency still cancelled the grant because it didn’t align with America First priorities.³

DeSantis creates his own DOGE team to audit university waste

While some governors are fighting Trump’s common-sense reforms, DeSantis took it a step further.

He created Florida’s own Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team that’s specifically examining university research projects and suggesting grants for cancellation.

Think about the genius of this strategy.

Trump is attacking woke academia from the federal level, while DeSantis is hitting them from the state level.

The radical professors literally have nowhere to hide.

Florida’s DOGE team has already suggested multiple grants for elimination, including one at the University of West Florida that was pushing “social justice” propaganda under the guise of teaching water quality sampling.⁴

This is exactly the kind of coordinated approach that the America First movement needs.

Instead of fighting each other, Trump and DeSantis are working together to drain the academic swamp.

The Left’s desperate legal battles reveal their panic

You can tell this strategy is working because of how frantically the Left is fighting back.

16 states controlled by Democrats are filing lawsuits to block Trump’s NSF funding freezes and grant cancellations.

They’re not just upset – they’re in full panic mode.

Meanwhile, universities across the country are scrambling to protect their woke research projects.

At Florida A&M University, the Agriculture Department cancelled a nearly $5 million grant for so-called “climate-smart” industrial hemp research.

The USDA made it clear that under Trump’s leadership, they’re putting “American farmers and ranchers first instead of promoting woke DEI initiatives or far-left climate programs.”⁵

But here’s what really shows you how effective this is working.

Some researchers are so desperate to continue their leftist projects that they’re paying for them out of their own pockets.

Consider Professor Terrence Peterson at Florida International University, who saw his $60,000 humanities grant vanish and is now “hustling to scrape together funds” for his project.⁶

That’s the reality check these academics needed – when the taxpayer spigot gets turned off, suddenly their “essential” research isn’t worth their own investment.

What this means for America’s future

The Trump-DeSantis strategy goes way beyond budget cuts.

We’re watching the systematic dismantling of an academic-industrial complex that’s spent decades turning universities into indoctrination factories.

Think about what’s been happening on campuses since the 1960s – tenured radicals training each new generation to hate America while taxpayers foot the bill.

They’ve been training the next generation of professional agitators and sending them out to destroy our constitutional republic.

But Trump and DeSantis are showing other conservative leaders exactly how to fight back.

Here’s what makes this approach so effective – you attack the problem from both ends.

Federal agencies pull the funding while state-level DOGE teams audit what’s left.

Now universities face a choice: drop the woke nonsense or find private donors willing to bankroll their activism.

Graduate students who were dependent on woke research grants are being redirected toward programs that actually benefit society.

And taxpayers are no longer being forced to fund the very propaganda that’s designed to destroy their values and their country.

The template for nationwide success

What’s happening in Florida needs to become the template for every red state in America.

Conservative governors shouldn’t be fighting Trump’s efforts to clean up higher education.

They should be creating their own DOGE teams to examine state university spending and eliminate wasteful programs that promote radical leftist ideology.

The results speak for themselves.

Florida’s universities are being forced to focus on legitimate academic research instead of social justice activism.

Graduate students who were dependent on woke research grants are being redirected toward programs that actually benefit society.

And taxpayers are no longer being forced to fund the very propaganda that’s designed to destroy their values and their country.

This is how you win the culture war – not with protests or social media posts, but with strategic political action that cuts off the funding for America’s enemies.

Trump and DeSantis have shown the way forward.

Now it’s time for every other America First leader to follow their example.

¹ Andrew Atterbury, “Florida’s universities face research overhaul courtesy of Trump and DeSantis,” POLITICO, August 11, 2025.

² – ⁶ Ibid.