How DOGE cuts have affected North Carolina in Trump’s first 100 days | Opinion
In the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency, one of his biggest tools of disruption has been the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
With Elon Musk at the helm and a goal to “restore competence and effectiveness,” DOGE has taken a chainsaw to the federal government, including slashing the federal workforce, axing important programs and even dismantling entire agencies. DOGE brags that it’s saving taxpayers billions by rooting out supposed fraud and abuse, but the “savings” has often meant sacrificing programs and services that actually help people.
A database from the Center for American Progress is tracking DOGE cuts, including grant cancellations and lease terminations, by city, state and congressional district. In North Carolina alone, there have been hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to education, research, foreign aid and more. Here are some of the biggest cuts DOGE has made in North Carolina so far, as compiled by the database:
Education
North Carolina lost tens of millions of dollars in Department of Education grants after the Trump administration cut several programs designed to train and retain teachers.
Some of those grants were Teacher Quality Partnership grants, which were created to combat the national teacher shortage by funding teacher preparation programs at colleges and universities. The Trump administration canceled the program earlier this year, claiming it promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Others were grants awarded through the Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program, which was designed to retain quality teachers and leaders in high-need schools. Wake and Mecklenburg counties alone lost more than $25 million in funding from the elimination of this program, according to the database.
The Trump administration also canceled the Comprehensive Centers program, which funded centers designed to support education at the state and local level. Those centers provide training, development and other resources that help schools better serve students. In North Carolina, that included support for alternative learning, STEM education at the elementary level and improvements to early childhood learning, according to one center’s website.
Foreign aid
DOGE’s shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) significantly impacted North Carolina, which was the fourth-highest state recipient of USAID funding in the country. Organizations in North Carolina, including nonprofits and universities, received nearly $1 billion in funding from USAID each year.
It dealt a blow to humanitarian aid programs focused on hunger and disease eradication, and hundreds of employees at North Carolina companies were laid off or furloughed.
Health and human services
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services lost around $100 million in federal funding. The department also eliminated 80 jobs as a result, it said. The department said it had no advance warning of the cuts.
While the cuts primarily targeted COVID-19 funding, that wasn’t all that was affected. It affected immunization efforts, behavioral health services and treatment programs for substance use disorder.
Agriculture
The Trump administration terminated two programs that provided food banks and schools with funding to buy fresh food from local farmers. In North Carolina, it totaled around $30 million in cuts. The programs helped schools and food banks provide healthy food to those who otherwise might not be able to afford it, and provided a steady source of income for local farmers and producers.
Research
Planned cuts to National Institutes of Health funding also stand to hurt North Carolina. The state is facing a $668 million economic loss as a result of the widespread cuts to federal health research, Axios Charlotte reported. The Triangle area is especially vulnerable to those cuts, given the concentration of universities, research institutions and hospitals in the area.
But the Trump administration has also directly canceled nearly two dozen grants in North Carolina, largely to do with COVID-related research, gender, minority groups and climate research.
The status of NIH funding in North Carolina remains uncertain, however, as the Trump administration’s cuts have been challenged in court.
This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 2:46 PM with the headline "How DOGE cuts have affected North Carolina in Trump’s first 100 days | Opinion."
