Was NIH’s Trans Kids Research Russ Vought’s Last Straw?

About a month before the White House considered an executive order giving it greater control over the National Institutes of Health, outside experts close to the administration learned of an NIH-backed project advocating sex-change procedures in children, according to a former administration official.

Reversing the tide of transgender surgeries in minors, including securing the closure of five top gender clinics this summer, has otherwise been among the Trump administration’s biggest triumphs with conservatives.

But NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya continues to underwrite an epidemiologist who conducts controversial scholarship on “discriminatory LGBT bills,” which she defines as including bans on transgender surgeries in kids. The epidemiologist, Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health Prof. Brittany Charlton, has been cited in the press hundreds of times to argue against the Trump administration’s policies.

The project began in August 2024 and ends in September 2029.

The continued grant may have contributed to the frayed relationship between Bhattacharya and the president’s budget bulldog, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought, the official said.

“The grant in question was terminated in 2025 but reinstated by a court order. It is the subject of active litigation; NIH does not comment on litigation,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “HHS continues to work diligently to ensure that the only research receiving NIH funding is scientifically rigorous and supportive of NIH’s mission of conducting research to improve the health of the American public.”

An email seeking the name of the lawsuit did not receive a reply.

“NIH has confirmed that Dr. Charlton’s grant is currently the subject of active litigation. We cannot comment further on the matter,” the HHS spokesperson said.

Charlton did not respond to requests for comment.