The Trump administration’s dismantling of a popular broadband grant program has been greeted with disgust and anger by those doing the heavy lifting to bridge the country’s digital divide, leaving many states’ planned broadband expansions in limbo, and affordable broadband advocates contemplating potential legal action.
The unprecedented choice to destroy digital skills training and broadband adoption programs created by an act of Congress is seeing escalating pushback by a growing coalition of frustrated lawmakers and state broadband offices.
Last week, President Trump announced via a Truth Social post that he was illegally ending the Digital Equity Act, falsely claiming that the program was “unconstitutional” and “racist.”
“No more woke handouts based on race!” the President said. “The Digital Equity Program is a RACIST and ILLEGAL $2.5 BILLION DOLLAR giveaway. I am ending this IMMEDIATELY, and saving Taxpayers BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!
But the popular program was perfectly legal, barely focused on race, and was proving to be of broad benefit to countless Americans – including many of the President’s own supporters in long-neglected rural counties.
The $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act was passed by Congress as part of the 2021 infrastructure bill. It mandated the creation of three different grant programs intended to shore up equitable, widespread access to affordable Internet, while providing the tools and digital literacy education needed to help neglected U.S. communities get online.
A legal challenge to the Trump administration’s unilateral decision to kill a law passed by Congress seems all but certain. In the interim the abrupt end to the popular law has resulted in dozens of states having to abruptly cancel major broadband expansion plans.
Counterproductive Destruction, Ample Frustration
In South Dakota, state leaders say they are being forced to cancel planned broadband expansion into rural and tribal areas after their $5 million Digital Equity Act broadband investment grant was cut.
“The main uses of those funds were to ensure that accessibility to public services through state governments were more accessible and more transparent,” Democratic Rep. Erik Muckey told Keloland.com. “The funding was also meant to impact and increase the usage of digital literacy.”
Despite Trump’s false allegation that the Digital Equity Act was “racist,” the bill itself barely mentions race.
The bill’s language primarily attempts to ensure that broadband is delivered equitably to all Americans long left without affordable broadband access, whether veterans, rural farmers, or minority populations.
“This crusade to eliminate any funding that has anything to do with even the word equity, even if the word equity has nothing to do with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, that it’s purely about actually helping basic infrastructure get to rural communities and native nations, it’s just a farce,” Muckey said.
Other states, like Vermont, say they’re being forced to cancel millions in planned broadband investment and digital education efforts. Via the state’s innovative leveraging of Communications Union Districts (CUDs) and federal grants, the state had been making major inroads in creatively expanding affordable broadband access.
“Vermont’s digital equity Program was going to improve the lives of Vermonters who can’t access the internet – whether because they can’t afford devices or don’t have the skills to take advantage of all the opportunities that come with being connected,” Vermont Community Broadband Board Executive Director Christine Hallquist said in a press release. “Taking this funding away now will severely limit our work and will mean many Vermonters will be left behind.”
The VCBB says Vermont – and dozens of other states – received this letter from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, claiming the Digital Equity Act is unconstitutional, and informing the state that its broadband grants under the program were terminated as of May 9, 2025.
In Minnesota, the Department of Employment and Economic Development and state broadband office says they’ve had to scrap more than $12 million in broadband expansion and digital literacy efforts due to the Trump administration’s dismantling of the program.
“This sudden and unprecedented cancellation of awarded funding could hurt DEED’s work to expand broadband access and digital technology to Minnesotans who are most underserved: seniors, Greater Minnesota residents, veterans, low-income Minnesotans, people of color, people with disabilities, and more,” stated the agency in a release.
The same story is playing out across dozens of states, with many of Trump’s own supporters feeling the impact of cancelled broadband expansion.
Consumer Groups, Lawmakers, Front Line Advocates Blast ‘Termination’
Many consumer groups were quick to note the cancellation is certain to make the digital divide worse. Others pointed out there is a broader effort afoot by the administration to falsely frame all efforts at diversity and equity as themselves somehow discriminatory.
“President Trump’s claim that the ‘Digital Equity Act’ is ‘racist’ reflects his pattern of inverting the meaning of such terms, labeling efforts to address racial inequity as discriminatory themselves, making clear his administration’s intent to block or claw back initiatives aimed at correcting historical injustices that impact Black communities and other communities of color,” consumer group Public Knowledge said in a statement.
Other groups, like Free Press, argued that the attacks on these programs are also part of a broader Republican plan to shift as much money as possible to Trump-supporting billionaire Elon Musk and his Starlink satellite broadband venture, which lacks the capacity and scale to truly address the country’s long-standing digital divide.
“The Trump administration is spiking plans states spent years developing to help their own residents, in favor of trying to redirect billions into Elon Musk’s pockets via his Starlink satellite internet service,” Free Press said. “It’s the sort of government graft, seizing resources from the public and awarding them to Trump loyalists, that has come to typify this White House.”
Washington State Senator Patty Murray, a co-author of the act, also didn’t mince words when discussing the impact of the attacks on the legislation in a statement that characterized the Presidential decree as “absolutely insane.”
“Resources meant to help red and blue communities—everyone from local school districts and libraries to workforce training programs and Tribes—close the digital divide will be illegally blocked because the President doesn’t like the word equity,” Murray said.
“Americans are sick and tired of extremist right-wing culture wars being forced down our throats. Republicans will have to explain to their constituents why this Republican administration doesn’t believe their local library should get funding to help seniors navigate telehealth options or why middle schoolers in rural districts shouldn’t get laptops.”
Meanwhile, yesterday, at NDIA’s annual Net Inclusion Conference where nearly 1,000 frontline digital inclusion advocates are gathered this year at the Gila River Indian Community, NDIA executive director Angela Siefer articulated the sense of collective anger and determination to keep the spirit of the Digital Equity Act alive.
“Our issue, your work, and the values we hold so dear are under attack,” she said. “It doesn’t just feel personal – it effing is personal.”
Siefer went on to highlight stories from the crowd, calling out digital navigators by name who helped people unfamiliar with how Internet connectivity could be harnessed to improve quality of life. One person Siefer asked to stand had recently helped a young man acquire the digital skills he needed to get his high school equivalency degree and a job as a forklift operator.
“These are the stories that move us,” she said “This is why we fight.”
In closing, Siefer led the audience in a call and response. “This is not over!” she proclaimed. “This is what?”
“Not over!” they responded.
Seifer was followed by Gigi Sohn, executive director for the American Association for Public Broadband, who spoke to the gathering on the need to “Defend, Educate, Advocate” for a program that “means more workers finding jobs, more patients seeing doctors, more students completing homework, and more small businesses connecting with customers.”
While the irrational attacks on the Digital Equity Act and other useful programs (like the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program) are portrayed as cost-cutting and efficiency efforts, that’s not consistent with an administration keen on spending $45 million on military parades. It also routinely discounts the broad, downstream benefits to taxpayers these programs can have.
The Digital Equity Act was on the verge of delivering clear, popular improvements to broadband literacy, affordability, and access – and its unconstitutional destruction has taken a bipartisan issue and turned it into a needless new controversy to the detriment of everyone.
*This is the second of several articles exploring what happens next after President Trump’s Administration has claimed to cancel a federal program duly established by Congress and signed by the previous President.
Header image of “Constitutional Interpretations” book courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
Inline image of a person snapping a cell phone image of President Trump courtesy of Darron R. Birgenheier on Flickr, Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
Inline image of older Veterans courtesy of NARA & DVIDS Public Domain Archive, Creative Commons, Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal
Inline image of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray speaking at Veterans event courtesy of NARA & DVIDS Public Domain Archive, Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal