A leftwing group dedicated to dismantling “structural racism” in finance has raked in millions of dollars in federal grants. But now its federal funding and non-profit status could be in jeopardy, as the group discriminates against white internship applicants in violation of President Donald Trump’s executive order.

The North Carolina-based Croatan Institute touts its allegiance to the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda on its website, promising to tackle “structural racism in finance” even as it imposed race-based selection criteria on its paid internship program. The program appears to violate President Trump’s executive order barring DEI policies and discrimination among federal grant recipients.

Now, a legal expert tells The Daily Wire that the program jeopardizes the federal funds currently en route to the organization, as well as any future funds that the Croatan Institute might hope to garner.

The Croatan Institute boasts the BLAISE internship program, which stands for “BIPOC Leaders Advancing an Inclusive and Sustainable Economy.” The program seeks to increase the representation of specific demographic groups in the financial industry.

The internship program’s eligibility requirements detail the race-based selection process. “Priority given to students of color or first-generation students from underserved communities,” the site reads. The group attempts to justify its racial preferences by writing that “in the world of finance, there is a dearth of people of color.”

The program could land the Croatan Institute in hot water, Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow GianCarlo Canaparo told The Daily Wire.

“Any entity that receives federal funds is prohibited by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act from discriminating on the basis of race and other protected categories,” Canaparo explained. “Giving priority to certain races, as the BIPOC internship does, is textbook discrimination.” He added that the discrimination could be remedied by way of a federal lawsuit.

The Croatan Institute has garnered more than $4 million in federal grants since fiscal year 2022. Included in that sum is a $1.9 million grant from the Department of Agriculture for fiscal year 2025, of which just under $470,000 has already been paid out. The organization was also slated to receive $40,000 from the Department of Agriculture to host a “financial health workshop series for BIPOC farmers and landowners.”

“If Croatan continues to receive federal funds, those funds are absolutely in jeopardy,” Canaparo explained. “And if Croatan hopes to receive more federal funds in the future, it will have to terminate this discriminatory internship program or it’s likely to face False Claims Act liability in addition to all the other sorts of liability,” he added, highlighting yet another legal risk that the organization appears to have exposed itself to.

The organization appears to have held the internship program for several years as it was raking in the federal money. The Croatan Institute announced the internship’s pilot program in 2022 and stated even more blatantly that applicants “must identify as black, indigenous, Latinx, or person of color.”

The program could threaten more than just the organization’s federal funding, however. Canaparo pointed out that the discriminatory program “jeopardizes its nonprofit status,” adding that “the IRS can revoke the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit that engages in race discrimination.”

The organization’s internship program is part of a broader initiative, called “Racial Equity, Economics, Finance and Sustainability,” which seeks to “advance opportunities for greater representation of underserved communities.” The initiative includes one project, called the Financial Health Investment Project, which seeks to promote “the financial resilience and long-term success of Black and other minority farmers and landowners” by offering online financial coaching. The program was funded by Department of Agriculture to the tune of $731,000.

The Croatan Institute isn’t the only federal grant recipient that’s discriminated against whites as it’s pursued the DEI agenda. A music ensemble investigated by The Daily Wire received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and held a “BIPOC internship” that explicitly barred whites from participation on account of their race.

The group even posted the demographic breakdown of their intern classes, further proving that it had excluded white applicants. The organization froze its internship program in the wake of The Daily Wire investigation.

The Croatan Institute did not respond to a request for comment.

Andrew Cuomo’s scandal-plagued political career came to an unceremonious end Tuesday when voters overwhelmingly ranked their former governor below a 33-year-old socialist who wants to abolish the police and establish city-run grocery stores.

Zohran Mamdani, an Assemblyman from Queens, emerged from the first round of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary with around 44% of the vote. Cuomo — who resigned as governor in 2021 amid allegations that he sexually harassed female staffers — came in second, with around 36% of votes. He called to congratulate Mamdani on his victory late Tuesday night, and did not say if he still plans to appear on the ballot for the Fight And Deliver Party, which he formed for this race.

“Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo said. “Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night.”

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a progressive stalwart who recently got himself arrested at an anti-ICE protest, secured 11% of votes, placing third. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who sidestepped the Democratic primary entirely to run as an independent, told reporters today that he voted in the primary: for himself, all five times.

Mayor Adams casts his vote at PS 81 in the Democratic primary.

He said he’d vote for “Eric Adams 1-5,” writing himself in instead of casting his ballot for one of the candidates (he’s opted out of the primary).

I asked if he’d vote for @OsseChi, and he shot a v skeptical look pic.twitter.com/Ct5csrPTna

— Josie Stratman (@JosieStratman) June 24, 2025

Mamdani’s clear, early lead came as a bit of a shock following polls that put him and Cuomo neck-and-neck in the days leading up to the election. An Emerson College poll released Monday had Cuomo leading Mamdani by a slim 35% to 32% margin in first-choice votes, but found that Mamdani pulled ahead after several rounds. But a Marist University poll conducted a week prior showed Cuomo winning both in the first round and after several rounds of ranked choice.

Tuesday’s election marks the beginning of the end of a colorful and contentious primary race between 11 candidates. New York City uses ranked choice voting, in which voters select up to five candidates and rank them in order of preference. Election officials won’t declare a winner until one candidate wins more than 50% of first choice votes.

If no candidate does on the first ballot, each voter’s last-ranked candidate is eliminated, and the votes are recalculated. It took two weeks and eight rounds of counting for Adams to clinch the nomination, though Mamdani will likely clinch the nomination sooner, given his lead. The New York City Board of Elections is expected to deliver a final result in a week.

Regardless of who ultimately wins the Democratic nomination, Cuomo, Mamdani, and Adams are set to be on the ballot in November’s general election. They’ll face off against Republican Curtis Silwa, a talk show host, and independent Jim Walden, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Cuomo, still mired by sexual harassment allegations and his botched handling of the COVID pandemic, became an early foil for his more progressive opponents. Mamdani encouraged his supporters to donate to rival progressive Adrienne Adams’ campaign. Last month, Mamdani and Lander cross-endorsed each other, urging voters not to rank Cuomo.

True to his pledge, on Tuesday, Lander told guests at his election night party that “with our help, Zohran Mamdani will be the Democratic nominee” and reportedly led a “goodbye Cuomo” chant at his election night party, according to the New York Times.

While none of the Democratic mayoral candidates cross-endorsed Cuomo, the former mayor racked up endorsements from big-name Democrats like Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg. Mamdani has the backing of progressive stalwarts like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and a slew of celebrities including Emily Ratajkowski and Cynthia Nixon, who called Cuomo a “TRUMP BILLIONAIRE-FUNDED SEX PREDATOR.”

Run don’t walk to GO VOTE FOR ⁦ZOHRAN MAMDANI⁩ FOR NYC Mayor!!!

Rank ⁦Zohran #1

Brad Lander #2

Adrienne Adams/Scott Stringer/Michael Blake or Zellnor Myrie #3 to #5.

DO NOT RANK TRUMP BILLIONAIRE-FUNDED SEX PREDATOR ANDREW CUOMO pic.twitter.com/cydMezdSU7

— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) June 24, 2025

Mamdani, who won a majority of early votes, leaned into his socialism throughout the campaign. He pledged to freeze rent, establish city-run grocery stores, and devote $65 million to transgender procedures for both kids and adults. Mamdani has also promised to make school lunches, city buses, and childcare free, and to establish a “Department of Community Safety” to “prevent violence before it happens” — which critics say is simply an effort to defund the police.

He was not the only candidate with a radical policy platform. Lander called for New York City to become a national abortion hub, and proposed solving the city’s housing crisis by paving over — and building apartments on — municipal golf courses. Assemblyman Michael Blake called to dispatch therapists to respond to 911 calls in lieu of police. And State Senator Zellnor Myrie called for the city to impose anti-racism curricula in its kindergartens.

Also on the ballot Tuesday was Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. A soft-on-crime Soros prosecutor best known for his relentless pursuit of President Donald Trump, Bragg easily defeated his sole challenger to secure the Democratic nomination.