In his cost slashing efforts...
He is using a bludgeon rather than a rapier, such as slashing research funding from the National Institutes of Health, which would limit reimbursements for overhead expenses to 15 percent of grants’ value, instead of the 50 to 70 percent that universities receive now. He is now attacking universities, among other things.
It reminds me of Jack Palance's line in The Big Knife, when he says to Rod Steiger, "You swat the fly in my nose with a hammer."