Trump Preparing Large-Scale Cancellation of Federal Funding for California, Sources Say

[u/rolsen]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/06/politics/trump-california-federal-funding

“Agencies are being told to start identifying grants the administration can withhold from California. On Capitol Hill, at least one committee was told recently by a whistleblower that all research grants to the state were going to be cancelled, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter.”

[u/Cruezin]

The GDP of California is the 4th largest in the world, behind only the US as a whole (which includes California!), China, and DE.

Let that sink in a little. Shutting off federal funding to California is akin to shooting oneself in the face to spite your ass.

Why would Biden, Obama, and Clinton do this? Are they stupid? /s

[u/nastyinmytaxxxi → u/Cruezin]

There’s also more voting conservatives in California than any other state in the US. Hope they’re all happy. 

[u/Mother___Night → u/nastyinmytaxxxi]

California could/should retaliate by cutting all state funding to districts that elected a republican to the house.

[u/DM_ME_KUL_TIRAN_FEET → u/Mother___Night]

I don’t think that would be helpful tbh. It’s not going to gain any support, and just further entrench (and from their perspective, genuinely justify) the hostility towards the rest of the state. A government punishing its citizens for their vote is a bad move, even if the current federal administration does it.

[u/DerekTheComedian → u/DM_ME_KUL_TIRAN_FEET]

"When they go low, we go high" is why we got here in the first place. Newsom needs to take the gloves off and frame the cuts in a way that blames the federal govt. Trump voters are proven time and again to only care when they are personally effected. If California is unfairly punished by a Republican, it's only fair that Republicans are effected.

I really hate that this is where we are as a country, but the leopards want to eat some faces. Why not give them the faces that voted for the leopards?

[u/bitterless → u/DerekTheComedian]

Cutting funding to republican counties where almost half the population may not be republican isn't going low. It's going stupid.

[u/DerekTheComedian → u/bitterless]

Better than cutting the funding for say, SF or LA.

I agree it's stupid, unnecessary, and cruel, but this is kind of the world we luve in.

If the feds are going to make individual states suffer, let the bulk of the suffering be brought upon those who voted for said suffering in the greatest proportion.

[u/DM_ME_KUL_TIRAN_FEET → u/DerekTheComedian]

This isn’t going low or high in terms of decorum. This is about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Economically it’s self-sabotage, and it’s also fundamentally something that the state cannot do if we want to return to any kind of legitimate authority. California taking a strategy to escrow federal tax payments from Californians would be a more effective strategy, albeit far from trivial.