NEH priorities shift as DOGE coordinates mass termination of over 1,400 humanities grants

The National Endowment for the Humanities published revised grant priorities aligned with the Trump administration's cultural agenda, followed by a mass cancellation of more than 1,400 active grants covering projects in history, literature, language preservation, public programming at libraries and museums, and civic education. The cancellations were coordinated through the Department of Government Efficiency. Grantees included universities, historical societies, community colleges, public libraries, state humanities councils, and independent scholars who had been awarded competitive grants through peer review. A federal judge ruled in May 2026 that the grant terminations reflected unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, finding the government had targeted grants for cancellation based on the ideological content of the funded work rather than any neutral programmatic rationale.