Last week, hundreds of active grants that were already awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) after rigorous peer review were unlawfully cancelled by Trump administration officials.

Many professors, researchers, and graduate students in History and the Humanities have been directly affected by these cancellations. Their ongoing research is now suspended or completely unfunded. Some researchers will lose their grant-funded positions, while others will be unable to pay for essential research materials, travel, and support that was already planned and allocated.

I personally know dozens of professors and researchers who have had their grants improperly and unlawfully cancelled.

Now, Trump-appointed leaders of the NEH indicate that some of these funds will be unlawfully diverted to one of President Trump’s political pet projects, a so-called National Garden of American Heroes. This illegitimate award of NEH funds will apparently happen without any grant competition or peer review process.

The Trump administration is attempting to transform the National Endowment for the Humanities into a political funding stream in a perversion of academic and research standards in History and the Humanities.

These unlawful and unethical actions are being done in order to implement President Trump’s personal and highly politicized vision of history.

“The National Endowment for the Humanities intends to redirect some of its funding to build President Trump’s proposed National Garden of American Heroes, as part of a reorientation toward the president’s priorities of celebrating patriotic history, according to three people who attended a meeting on Wednesday where the plans were discussed,” according to The New York Times.

“Last week, the agency, the main federal funder of the humanities, abruptly canceled more than 85 percent of its existing grants, which support museums, historical sites and scholarly and community projects across the country. The moves outraged supporters of the humanities, and stirred speculation about whether the agency would survive.”

The New York Times reports that “At the meeting on Wednesday, the agency’s acting chair, Michael McDonald, told its 24-member advisory council that the endowment would pivot to supporting the White House’s agenda, according to the three attendees, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to describe a confidential meeting. In particular, they were told, the agency would support Mr. Trump’s planned patriotic sculpture garden and the broader celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence on July 4, 2026.”

President Trump is clearly preparing to make the 250th Anniversary of the United States his own personal celebration.

Schuessler, Jennifer. “Canceled Humanities Grants to Help Pay for Trump’s ‘Garden of Heroes.'” The New York Times (10 April 2025).