This resonates, as the only thing they see the world in terms of is "patronage networks". In their mind there isn't some larger purpose to funding scientific research, it's just money supporting the "liberal conspiracy" (ie any institution that won't ask "how high" while smiling when they bark "jump")
Stepping up a level, it's not because they see a larger playing field and have some reason to want to change the system. It's because they're small minded people who literally don't understand what they're butchering and chopping down to their own level.
Now, I don't think they were always like this. Musk definitely accomplished things through his companies, and Trump hasn't always talked like a senile old man waiting for a ride from the police station. It seems that they've been made small minded by crippling social media addictions, going in spirals of ever-smaller numbers of ever-more "enthusiastic" followers that lap up the lamest low-effort reactionary takes.
The Trump admin (lump the aligned billionaire players in) links some of this research to patronage networks of their opponents.
Here's an example of their claim: https://x.com/NIH/status/1888004759396958263
If you're asking what their target is, I think it's the money networks. Whether they are going to achieve their aim is debatable.