Trump wants to end the ‘horrible, horrible’ CHIPS Act. It’s not that simple.

As part of his address to Congress last week, President Donald Trump made clear that he wanted to cancel the $52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which semiconductor manufacturers have relied on for funding expansion projects across the country.

Trump last Tuesday criticized the law, calling it a “horrible, horrible thing” that gives large sums of money to companies who don’t spend it. He urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to get rid of the CHIPS Act and to use “whatever’s left over to reduce debt or any other reason you want to.”

The president’s comments received muted applause on the Congressional floor, perhaps because the bill is supporting industry growth in several Republican-led states, including Texas and Ohio. It also would require an act of Congress to fully defund such a law, and at this point, getting enough votes could be a tall order.

Despite Republicans having a majority in the House and Senate, Jack Gold, founder and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, said the move would be very unpopular, with states losing billions of dollars in the process.

Since 2022, the CHIPS Act has funded $30.6 billion in grant awards to 19 companies with projects in several states. The funds are also expected to create 145,000 manufacturing and construction jobs, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which support the surrounding local economies in the form of housing, restaurant visits and more.

While it may be a tough sell to get Congress on board with the president’s vision, Gold said Trump could also slow funding down via layoffs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the group responsible for dispersing the CHIPS funds.

NIST has been bracing for job cuts for weeks, Axios reported, with the Department of Government Efficiency targeting about 500 staffers, including at least three lab directors.