(Beth Clifton collage)
The White House/DOGE numbers on alleged transgender mice don’t add up
WASHINGTON D.C.––U.S. president Donald Trump made just two mentions of animal issues in his March 4, 2025 address to Congress.
Trump renamed the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge near Galveston Bay in Texas after 12-year-old rape/murder victim Jocelyn Nungaray, but did not change any of the refuge policies.
Trump also listed “$8 million for making mice transgender” as an example of alleged wasteful biomedical research funding axed by the Department of Governmental Efficiency under multi-billionaire Elon Musk.
While the allegation about “making mice transgender” brought giggles and global ridicule, as many listeners mis-assumed that Trump meant experiments using transgenic mice, he did not.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Jocelyn Nungaray “loved animals,” but did she love hunters shooting them?
Renaming the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in honor of Jocelyn Nungaray was the more questionable Trump action, in view of his stated reason why:
“One thing I have learned about Jocelyn is that she loved animals so much,” Trump declared. “She loved nature.”
The 34,000-acre Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, however, is used chiefly by hunters to shoot geese, blue-and green-winged teal, mottled duck, gadwall, pintail and shoveler.
Altogether, 13,600 acres––40% of the refuge––are open to hunting. The rest is mostly inaccessible marsh.
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There was reason to rename the refuge
Though renaming a facility used mostly for killing waterfowl after a girl who “loved animals so much” is bizarre, there never actually was much reason for the newly dubbed Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge to have been called the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.
The town of Anahuac is 16 miles away.
Further, contrary to common supposition, the name Anahuac has nothing to do with the Atakapa, the Native American tribe found in the area in 1721 by French explorer Jean Baptiste de La Harpe.
According to the official refuge history, “General Manuel de Mier y Terán, commanding officer of the Mexican states of Coahuila and Texas, officially named the town Anahuac in January 1831, after the ancient capital of the Aztecs,” more than 1,000 miles south.
The Aztec empire never extended within 500 miles of Galveston Bay.
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“Transgender experiments on mice”
Now about the mice.
Amid the global storm of news media and social media ridicule following Trump’s remark about “$8 million for making mice transgender,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt––or someone, anyhow, posting in her capacity––asserted that, “Under the [Joseph] Biden Administration, the National Institutes of Health doled out millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded grants for institutions across the country to perform transgender experiments on mice.”
The White House posting listed six specific studies, without mentioning how many mice may have been involved, or may still be involved.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Six specific studies
In order of size of grant, $3,100,000 was spent on “Gonadal hormones as mediators of sex and gender influences in asthma.”
$2,500,000 was allocated to “Reproductive Consequences of Steroid Hormone Administration.”
$1,200,000 went to “Androgen effects on the reproductive neuroendocrine axis.”
$735,113 funded “Microbiome mediated effects of gender affirming hormone therapy in mice.”
$455,000 was used to develop “A Mouse Model to Test the Effects of Gender-affirming Hormone Therapy on HIV Vaccine-induced Immune Responses.”
Finally, $299,940 funded “Gender-Affirming Testosterone Therapy on Breast Cancer Risk and Treatment Outcomes.”
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Double-counted $1.2 million
The White House posting claimed that total spending on these six studies came to $8,290,053.
The actual total is $7,090,053, a shortfall of $1.2 million.
A simple explanation is that Leavitt, or whomever, double-counted “Androgen effects on the reproductive neuroendocrine axis.”
Whether the allegation that the six studies actually had anything to do with “making mice transgender” may be up for debate.
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Translated into English
According to translations of the biomedical research jargon in the project descriptions offered by DemocraticUnderground.com, they were, again in order of size, quoting DemocraticUnderground.com verbatim:
- A study of the effects of estrogens on a type of asthma, using neutered mice treated with female hormones.
- A study to see if steroid hormones (which some humans do receive in real life) affect the ovaries and follicles.
- A study of human androgens using mice genetically altered to produce human hormones.
- A study in mice showing how the microbiome affects gender affirming hormone therapy (which is given to some humans in real life).
- A study to see if gender affirming hormone therapy (which some humans do receive in real life) might interfere with immune response to the HIV vaccine.
- A study to see if testosterone therapy (which is given to some humans in real life) increases breast cancer risk among female mice — both with and without ovaries.
One might also observe that five of the six studies appear to point toward reasons why a health-conscious person might avoid transgender surgery.
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White Coat Waste Project claims credit
Be that as it may, the far right-leaning, pro-Donald Trump antivivisection society White Coat Waste Project lost little time in claiming credit for the Department of Governmental Efficiency killing the six sets of mouse experiments.
According to White Coat Waste Project social media postings, “A new White Coat Waste Project analysis of federal spending uncovered over $10 million in taxpayer-funded grants currently being wasted to create transgender mice, rats, and monkeys in university labs.
“In the tax-funded experiments, mice, rats, and large animals underwent invasive surgeries and hormone therapies to mimic gender transitions in painful and deadly experiments.
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“Called for these projects to be defunded”
“The transgender animal experiments were paid for in part by millions in taxpayer-funded [diversity, equity, and inclusion] grants,” the White Coat Waste Project continued.
“The experiments were approved and funded by the National Institutes of Health and USDA, and millions more are being funneled from federal grants to similar projects.
“Following White Coat Waste Project’s exposé, lawmakers immediately called for the experiments to be defunded by the Department of Governmental Efficiency.
“Immediately following White Coat Waste Project’s revelations, Department of Government Efficiency Senate Caucus chair Joni Ernst,” a Republican from Iowa, “and Representatives Nancy Mace and Paul Gosar,” Republicans from South Carolina and Arizona, respectively, “called for these projects to be defunded.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Where did $3 million & all the rats & monkeys go?
Somewhere between the White Coat Waste Project contention that it had “uncovered over $10 million in taxpayer-funded grants currently being wasted to create transgender mice, rats, and monkeys in university labs,” and the White House defense of the Trump assertion that the Biden administration had allocated “$8 million for making mice transgender” by listing just over $7 million in experiments, $3 million and everything having to do with rats and monkeys disappeared.
Beth & Merritt Clifton, editors, ANIMALS 24-7.
But, promised White Coat Waste Project, “These projects are just the tip of the iceberg. Millions more from taxpayer-funded grants are being funneled to transgender animal experiments and we’ll continue to uncover, expose, and stop this waste and abuse.”
ANIMALS 24-7 will be watching to see what else turns up that can credibly be documented.
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