A misleading claim that President Donald Trump signed an executive order cutting federal funding to cities that “promote, support or otherwise encourage LGBTQ activism” has been circulating on social media since his inauguration.
President Trump signed 26 executive orders—legally binding written orders issued by the president to the federal government which do not require congressional approval—on his first day back in the Oval Office on 20 January 2025.
However, executive orders can potentially be blocked in other ways—by Congress denying funding to relevant agencies, for example, or by the courts.
While President Trump has signed at least two executive orders that specifically relate to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, these did not include cutting funding to cities that promote “LGBTQ activism”.
Full Fact searched the executive orders and other presidential actions published by the White House for the phrase quoted in the posts, but found no results.
A spokesperson for GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) told Full Fact that they “have not heard of this executive order or any similar order”.
President Trump has repealed a number of existing executive orders that promote LGBTQ equality, which were issued by former President Joe Biden—including orders that prevented “discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation” and discrimination against LGBTQ Americans in education.
The Republican president has signed the “Ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing” order, which scraps all diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility “mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities” within the federal government.
He has also signed an order titled: “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government”, which tells federal agencies to “end the federal funding of gender ideology”.
But neither of these executive orders explicitly states that federal funding will be cut for cities promoting or encouraging LGBTQ activism.
We have seen other false claims relating to actions President Trump has taken on his first day back in office being shared on social media, including that his birthright citizenship order would apply to the vice president’s wife, and that he signed an executive order removing all capital gains tax on US-based cryptocurrencies.
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