Happened last year, still spite over the COVID vaccine. As referenced in the article:
As such, Moderna and Merck call their mRNA cancer vaccine a type of “neoantigen therapy.”
The term avoids both “mRNA” and “vaccine,” which draw hostility from Trump’s anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In addition to his concerted efforts to undermine lifesaving vaccines, Kennedy has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for the development of mRNA vaccine technology.
Not sure if this keyword strategy is what saved the program or if this was one of the ones allowed despite the cuts due to so much taxpayer money already invested.
It was spring 2025 where the red state leaders were trying to ban mRNA vaccines, but that never went anywhere to my knowledge, hence the funding being cut to research instead.
It’s honestly hard to tell if it’s just Trump waffling, wanting to claim success for something he had nothing to do with, forgetting about this project, getting fooled by the switch in wording, or if they bribed or flattered him before it got cancelled. When so much ego and corruption is involved, it could really be anything.