President Donald Trump signs an executive order related to drug prices Monday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

The Trump administration has cut off $35 million in grant funding to Maine for expanding digital access for rural and low-income residents and small businesses.

The Maine Connectivity Authority, the state agency leading an expansion of broadband and digital access, received a formal notice Friday about the termination of three federal grant programs to improve digital skills, provide internet safety education and ensure people have affordable devices.

The grants fall under the federal Digital Equity Act, a Biden-era initiative that President Donald Trump last week denounced as “racist.” The move to cut funding under the federal law is expected to face court challenges.

“This announcement is deeply disappointing, and MCA is exploring Maine’s options to respond to the legality of the grant termination,” said Maine Connectivity Authority President Andrew Butcher in a written statement. “Our team is evaluating how to best proceed with critical programming and investments currently underway through our statewide digital equity strategy.”

The affected programs are part of an effort to improve high-speed internet and technology access in underserved communities. The Digital Equity Act was included in a bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law under the Biden administration.

Maine funding included:

• $10 million for a state grant program to help nonprofits and community organizations expand internet and technology access, a statewide device donation and refurbishment campaign, and an educational platform for technical assistance.

• $13.8 million to provide digital skills training, technical support, telehealth access and affordable device programs in Maine through partner organizations including the Maine State Library, Maine Community College System and the Maine Adult Education Association.

• $11 million for the Greater Portland Council of Governments to provide technology and digital skills education, digital services for municipal governments, device programs and business support programs.

Those grants were announced this past winter and the programs were expected to serve nearly 130,000 people in Maine, according to the Maine Connectivity Authority. The agency said in a news release Monday that the cuts are part of a nationwide termination of grants across all states.

They come after Trump attacked the Digital Equity Act last week, calling it “racist” and “illegal” in a social media post.

“I am ending this IMMEDIATELY, and saving Taxpayers BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!” Trump wrote on the platform Truth Social.

Kayla Lewis, a community engagement consultant who has been working with the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission on digital skills and broadband access in York County, said the group was expecting the funding to support work that is already underway.

Lewis said the work includes creating an internet hot spot program to serve immigrants and refugees, educating elderly residents to prevent them from falling victim to online scams and fraud, and providing laptops to homeless veterans so they can look for jobs and housing.

She said the funding cuts are based on a misunderstanding of the programs.

“When we look at the demographics of Maine and those vulnerable populations (being served), it goes beyond just the category of race and ethnicity,” she said. “I can guarantee there isn’t a Mainer who doesn’t know someone that falls in the covered digital equity populations.

“Without this funding, we have community members who will only be left further behind,” Lewis said.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration did not respond to questions Monday afternoon about why the funding was cut and to what extent other states are also seeing cuts.

The administration is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which repeated Trump’s criticism in Friday’s notice to the Maine Connectivity Authority. “As the President determined … (the program) is unconstitutional and grants issued pursuant to it were created with, and administered using, impermissible and unconstitutional racial preferences.”

It said the agency also has the authority to terminate the award if it determines it no longer meets program goals or priorities.

Media reports Monday indicated at least one other state — Indiana — was also notified of cuts. The Indiana Broadband Office posted on its website that it was instructed by the federal government to suspend its Digital Opportunity Grant program funded by the Digital Equity Act.

Members of Maine’s congressional delegation condemned the cuts in statements Monday.

“We should be expanding programs like the Digital Equity Act, not gutting them to score political points — or to appease the President’s insane vendetta against any policy or program that dares to mention the word ‘equity,'” said Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, in a written statement.

A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said that the Digital Equity Act was one of King’s top priorities in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and he worked to get it included in the larger legislation that passed Congress and became law.

“Terminating this funding — which was established by Congress through the landmark bipartisan infrastructure law — blatantly goes against Congressional authority and only stands to harm our communities, not help them,” King said in a written statement.

A spokesperson for Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that Trump’s characterization of the program as racist “is not accurate” and noted that it is helped expand access through rural portions of Maine.

“This provision was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Senator Collins helped to negotiate,” spokesperson Blake Kernen said in a written statement. “Collins disagreed with the Biden Administration’s decisions to unilaterally change provisions of the law and disagrees with the Trump Administration’s decision to do the same.”

Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, issued a written statement criticizing the cuts.

“Rural places need broadband infrastructure and the federal government should make sure they have it. These Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds should be released to Maine to support rural connectivity, as Congress intended,” he said.

Golden’s staff said his office is in talks with the rest of the delegation to determine next steps to ensure Maine gets what it is owed through this law.