May 9, 2025
NATIONWIDE — As AAPI Heritage Month begins, our communities are once again being forced to confront an attack on our safety at the hands of Trump. The Department of Justice has abruptly terminated a $2 million grant awarded to Stop AAPI Hate — along with millions more in critical funding for 33 other community organizations under the same grant program, including Asian American nonprofits South Asian Network and Minnesota 8. Allocated by Congress starting in 2022 to help groups counter hate and violence, build safety, and support victims, this funding was not a luxury — it was a lifeline.
Let’s be clear: This isn’t about budgets or performance. The baseless termination of these grants is an act of authoritarian overreach. It’s unconstitutional, unjust, and targeted — a direct attack on marginalized communities who have long borne the brunt of hate. And it’s no coincidence. This effort is being led by Donald Trump — the same figure, who, five years ago, ignited an unprecedented wave of anti-Asian hate and violence with his racist rhetoric during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, Trump and his loyalists are once again stoking anti-AAPI hate by using anti-immigrant and white nationalist narratives to fuel their political agenda.
Having already endangered our communities, they are now stripping away the resources we need to stay safe. The grant program that supported Stop AAPI Hate was part of a broader funding purge of 365 DOJ grants that went to nonprofits focused on preventing hate acts, protecting victims of crime, and building community-based interventions to stop violence before it happens. The coordinated funding shutdown is a calculated move to weaken the organizations that stand between vulnerable communities and the very chaos, hate, and division that Trumpism breeds. This is part of Trump’s larger effort to harm communities of color and other vulnerable groups – including taking away civil rights protections, going after companies that support diversity and ending programs that help stop and prevent acts of hate.
This is also a direct challenge to Congress. Lawmakers allocated these funds to combat hate, advance justice, and keep our communities safe — and now Congress’s authority is being blatantly ignored. We urge Congress to speak out forcefully against this authoritarian overreach. Trump’s reckless move not only puts our safety at risk, but also goes against American values of equality and democratic accountability. Our leaders must keep their word and stand up for the people they were elected to serve.
We at Stop AAPI Hate remain committed to our mission — and more determined than ever to fight for our communities and our democracy. We ask you, our supporters, to continue standing with us in resistance. Together, we will not be silenced. We will not back down. And we will never stop fighting for each other.
