


The first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term have landed hard on the Bay State.
From his fights with institutions of higher learning over their use of DEI policies or the activities of students, to his decision to target “sanctuary jurisdictions” for federal funding cuts, here are some of the actions taken by the 47th President or his administration during these first few months that directly affect Massachusetts.
A crimson collision
The Trump administration issued Harvard University a set of policy demands and indicated their access to federal grant and research funding was contingent on their compliance.
Harvard refused, with University President Alan Garber calling them “unprecedented demands being made by the federal government to control the Harvard community.” The administration responded by ordering a halt to over $2.2 billion in funding.
Harvard has since sued the Trump administration, and a trial over the funding freeze is scheduled for July 21.
National Institutes for Health Funding
Trump’s “department of government efficiency” was created with the ostensible mission of finding and cutting waste from the federal budget. Among the cuts identified by the administration were funds provisioned for scientific and medical research at the nation’s top institutions.
After hundreds of Massachusetts institutions received $3.5 billion in funding from the NIH in fiscal 2024, the cuts will be felt across the state, according to Gov. Maura Healey. Each research dollar translates into two-to-three times as much economic activity in the state, the governor has said, and “the full hit to our economy will be much worse” than the value of lost federal funding.
Bringing ‘hell’ to Boston
True to his word, Trump “border czar” Tom Homan has brought the weight of the federal immigration apparatus down on Massachusetts.
During one five-day stretch in March, immigration officials took almost 400 “illegal aliens” into custody from across the commonwealth. According to the Trump Administration, many of the apprehended people “have serious criminal convictions and charges, including murder, child rape, fentanyl trafficking, and armed robbery.”
Public Health Grant cancellations
In March, the Healey administration “condemned” Trump’s decision to cut $11 billion in as-yet unobligated public health grants, $100 million of which were due to Massachusetts over the next year.
The funding is meant for community health centers, state vaccine infrastructure, and to support “the core functions of the State Public Health Laboratory” where testing for diseases such as bird flu is conducted.
The taking of Rümeysa Öztürk
The Trump administration’s plan to crack down on illegal immigration took a local and unprecedented turn in late March, when Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk was surrounded by masked immigrations agents, handcuffed, placed in an unmarked car, and whisked out of state despite a court order demanding she be kept in Massachusetts.
The Turkish national’s student visa had been revoked — a fact she and her lawyers learned only after her sudden disappearance — over her op-ed published in a Tufts student newspaper calling on the university to recognize the results of a vote by the student government regarding Israel’s war in Gaza.
Öztürk is currently being held in Louisiana as the Trump administration fights a Vermont judge’s order to return her to New England by May 1.
Sanctuary City ordeal
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was among a handful of Democratic municipal officials called before Congress earlier this year to answer for their city’s so-called sanctuary policies. Boston does not choose to call itself a sanctuary city, but its policy of not inquiring about a resident’s immigration status before providing city services and refusal to cooperate with immigration officials over civil matters would likely qualify it as such.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order calling on his Secretary of Homeland Security and Attorney General to develop and publish a list of “sanctuary jurisdictions,” and notify them they are at risk of losing all federal funding if those policies remain.
Cuts to K-12 funding
In February, the administration announced it would cut $2 billion worth of Education Stabilization Funds, $106 million of which was meant for Massachusetts. That money, according to the governor, “was supposed to go right to Massachusetts students and schools.”
The funding was allocated to pay for mental health services, math tutoring, “high-quality instructional material with a focus on science,” enhanced screenings for students at risk of poor reading outcomes, school building upgrades, and professional development programs for teachers.
Lawsuits
Attorney General Andrea Campbell suddenly finds herself in the middle of no less than a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration, many of them aimed at reversing the effects of Trump’s numerous executive orders.
So far, she has sued him or joined lawsuits over NIH funding, cuts to the Department of Education, mass firings of probationary federal employees, and his plan to end the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, among other court actions.
The most recent lawsuit, joined last Friday, aims to block the administration’s plan for federal education funding for “state and local agencies that refuse to abandon lawful programs and policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” according to Campbell’s office. That could mean a loss of $575.2 million.
Offshore Wind
What seemed to be the beginning of a growing new industry has been effectively stymied by Trump’s longstanding thoughts on the efficiency and supposed dangers of wind power.
Among the president’s first actions after taking office was an executive order calling for an end to new offshore wind leases and permits, but leaving existing permits — like those granted for a pair of projects currently under construction off the Bay State coast — in place for now.
However, in mid-April, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum ordered a halt to construction of a project off the coast of New York, and recent reporting suggests that, nationally, the wind industry is feeling serious apprehension under Trump.