Trump's Threat to Kill the Digital Equity Act Will Keep the Internet Out of Reach for Millions
WASHINGTON — In a rant posted to social media on Thursday, President Donald Trump threatened to eliminate funding for programs created under the Digital Equity Act, targeting $2.75 billion in federal grants that Congress had committed to help close the digital divide.
The programs, created as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law passed during the Biden administration, were designed to “ensure that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy.” The Trump administration has frozen and refused to distribute these and other internet-access and support funds promised to states and local organizations.
Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:
“The Digital Equity Act is essential, bipartisan legislation designed to help Americans everywhere get an affordable internet connection and build the skills to use it to improve their lives. Ending this vital program would only hurt the elderly, working people, veterans, disabled individuals, low-income families and people in rural communities, denying them access to jobs and educational opportunities, lifesaving news and information, and other untold benefits and opportunities.
“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. 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.
“This program seems to have been targeted simply because it contains the word ‘equity’ and might help communities of color. The Trump regime has declared war on fairness and opportunity in all its forms, harming some of the most vulnerable among us. If Trump succeeds with this cruel scheme, we will have squandered an unprecedented opportunity to improve people’s lives and close the digital divide once and for all. But the Trump regime clearly prefers to cut off access and keep people disconnected, destitute and facing discrimination.
“Trump throws around words like racist and unconstitutional in his rants — but those only accurately describe his own motivations and actions. Digital inclusion is an undeniable public good. Yet the very idea that people of color, disabled people or poor people might benefit in a small way from these programs is so abhorrent to Trump that he’s determined to destroy the whole thing. Congress appropriated these funds, of course, and the executive branch’s only job should be to distribute them. But the lapdogs in the majority on Capitol Hill seem unwilling to mount much of a protest over the president’s wasteful and unjust abuses, regardless of the real harm to their own constituents.”