The Biden administration spent millions of taxpayer dollars on at least six transgender experiments on mice, National Institutes of Health records show.
President Trump mentioned the transgender mice experiments during his address to Congress on Tuesday night.
“Eight million dollars for making mice transgender. This is real,” Trump said as the chamber erupted in laughter.
🚨TRUMP: “$8M for making mice transgender. This is real.” 💀 pic.twitter.com/JgxVWsrJY6
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) March 5, 2025
CNN quickly spun up a fact check, saying Trump “falsely claimed” the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified $8 million for “making mice transgender.” The outlet cited $477,121 in government funding for three projects involving giving estrogen to monkeys to test how it affects their susceptibility to HIV.
The White House responded with a fact sheet citing six studies involving gender ideology and mice, all funded by the NIH and costing American taxpayers over $8 million.
One study treated both male and female mice with estrogen to discover how to better “treat and prevent asthma in cis and transgender women.” That study cost taxpayers over $3.1 million over four years starting in 2021.
Another study that cost over $1.2 million and began last year used mice to explore how testosterone affects the reproductive systems of “transgender males” or biological women who take testosterone.
Another study last year on “gender affirming hormone therapy” in mice injected male mice with estrogen and female mice with testosterone to analyze the relationship between the hormone drugs, the gut microbiome, and skeletal maturation. That study cost the taxpayers $735,113.
One study used mice to explore how taking testosterone affects breast cancer in the “underserved transmasculine community” or biological females who identify as male. That study from 2023 cost just under $300,000.
A study that has cost $2.5 million since 2019 gave mice both puberty blockers and testosterone to explore the effects of testosterone on the reproductive systems of trans-identifying females. The study said it “developed a mouse model to mimic T treatment for FTM gender transition” and found the mice “manifest defects in ovarian architecture” and see changes in egg development.
Finally, one study developed a “mouse model of gender-affirming hormone therapy” to “test the immune responses of ‘cis’ vs. ‘trans’ mice to a HIV vaccine.” That study began last year and cost the taxpayers $455,120.
“The Fake News losers at CNN immediately tried to fact check it, but President Trump was right (as usual),” the White House said.
Frivolous scientific research is a target of Elon Musk’s DOGE, which was tasked by Trump with rooting out federal waste.
Gender ideology has become a searing political and cultural issue across the country over the last several years.
Trump signed several executive orders during his first weeks in office banning males from women’s sports, defining sex as male and female, and pulling federal funding from schools that promote gender ideology.
