You did exactly what GP was commenting on - conflating something that happened occasionally in the past with policy that mandates it should happen every time today.

Yes, grants were given and revoked for political purposes in the past.

But what percentage of grant proposals were reviewed by an appointed political officer whose sole job was to screen out wrongthink? It did happen, but it was ad hoc and amateur. Today’s administration is formalizing Soviet-style political reviews of science.

It’s scary, and it’s a mistake to hold up occasional (but serious!) mistakes from the past to justify systematic evil today.