{"id":8453,"date":"2026-01-13T14:46:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T14:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=8453"},"modified":"2026-01-13T14:46:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T14:46:49","slug":"court-says-trump-illegally-blocked-clean-energy-grants-to-democratic-states-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=8453","title":{"rendered":"Court says Trump illegally blocked clean energy grants to Democratic states | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"article__subhead\"><em>A US district judge ruled that Trump\u2019s decision singled out states that voted for Democrats in the 2024 elections.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-dates\">\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Published On 13 Jan 2026<\/span><span aria-hidden=\"true\">13 Jan 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-share\" data-testid=\"rich-share\">\n<div class=\"rich-share__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"rich-share__button-wrapper\"><button class=\"rich-share__button row\" aria-expanded=\"false\"><\/p>\n<p>Click here to share on social media<\/p>\n<p><svg class=\"icon icon--share2 icon--primary icon--16 \" viewbox=\"0 0 20 16\" version=\"1.1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><title>share2<\/title><path fill=\"#000\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M11.688 9.048c-.659 0-1.252.282-1.673.733l-4.92-2.45c.016-.115.028-.232.028-.352 0-.117-.011-.23-.027-.343l4.913-2.423a2.285 2.285 0 0 0 1.68.739C12.964 4.952 14 3.899 14 2.6 14 1.302 12.965.25 11.688.25S9.377 1.302 9.377 2.601c0 .117.01.23.027.343L4.49 5.367a2.285 2.285 0 0 0-1.68-.739C1.536 4.628.5 5.681.5 6.979c0 1.299 1.035 2.35 2.312 2.35.659 0 1.252-.281 1.673-.731l4.92 2.45a2.357 2.357 0 0 0-.029.351c0 1.299 1.035 2.351 2.312 2.351S14 12.698 14 11.399s-1.035-2.35-2.312-2.35Z\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"rich-share__social-text\">Share<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>A United States judge has ruled that the administration of President Donald Trump acted illegally when it cancelled the payment of $7.6bn in clean energy grants to states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>In a decision on Monday, US District Judge Amit Mehta said the administration\u2019s actions violated the Constitution\u2019s equal protection requirements.<\/p>\n<section class=\"more-on\">\n<h2 class=\"more-on__heading\">Recommended Stories<!-- --> <\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">list of 3 items<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cDefendants freely admit that they made grant-termination decisions primarily \u2013 if not exclusively \u2013 based on whether the awardee resided in a state whose citizens voted for President Trump in 2024,\u201d Mehta wrote in a summary of the case.<\/p>\n<p>The grants were intended to support hundreds of clean energy projects across 16 states, including California, Colorado, New Jersey and Washington state. The projects included initiatives to create battery plants and hydrogen technology.<\/p>\n<p>But projects in those states were cancelled in October, as the Trump administration sought to ratchet up pressure on Democratic-led states during a heated government shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Trump told the network One America News (OAN) that he would take aim at projects closely associated with the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could cut projects that they wanted, favourite projects, and they\u2019d be permanently cut,\u201d he told the network.<\/p>\n<p>Russell Vought, the Trump-appointed director for the Office of Management and Budget, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/russvought\/status\/1973450301236715838\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">posted<\/a> on social media that month that \u201cfunding to fuel the Left\u2019s climate agenda\u201d had been \u201ccancelled\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The cuts included up to $1.2bn for a hub in California aimed at accelerating hydrogen technology, and up to $1bn for a hydrogen project in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n<p>St Paul, Minnesota, was among the jurisdictions affected by the grant cuts. The city and a coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit to contest the Trump administration\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"second-legal-setback\">Second legal setback<\/h2>\n<p>A spokesperson for the US Department of Energy, however, said the Trump administration disagrees with the judge\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<p>Officials \u201cstand by our review process, which evaluated these awards individually and determined they did not meet the standards necessary to justify the continued spending of taxpayer dollars\u201d, spokesman Ben Dietderich said.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration has repeatedly pledged to cut back on what it considers wasteful government spending.<\/p>\n<p>Monday\u2019s ruling was the second legal setback in just a matter of hours for Trump\u2019s efforts to roll back the clean energy programmes in the US.<\/p>\n<p>A separate federal judge ruled on Monday that work on a major\u00a0offshore wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut can resume, handing the industry at least a temporary victory as Trump seeks to shut it down.<\/p>\n<p>The US president campaigned for the White House on a promise to end the offshore wind industry, saying electric wind turbines \u2013 sometimes called windmills \u2013 are too expensive and hurt whales and birds.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Trump has pushed for the US to ramp up fossil fuel production, considered the primary contributor to climate change. The US president has repeatedly defied scientific consensus on climate change and referred to it as a \u201choax\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A US district judge ruled that Trump\u2019s decision singled out states that voted for Democrats in the 2024 elections. Published On 13 Jan 202613 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share A United States judge has ruled that the administration of President Donald Trump acted illegally when it cancelled the payment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}