This is incredible. You’d probably need to go back to Nero burning Rome to find an equivalent for the patently self-destructive moves the Trump administration are making right now.

In an age when science and innovation is so critical, how can you explain literally cutting science funding in half, except as a form of nihilistic drive to self-harm?

Worse still, the biggest cut is to STEM education, which funding is cut by an insane -80%, and which in the medium to long-run is the most critical: it stands to reason that if you don’t educate the next generation of scientists, you soon won’t have many scientists…

Especially when you pair that with other moves the administration is making to drive away foreign STEM talent, like banning foreign students at Harvard.

This is followed by funding cuts to fundamental research in math, physics and chemistry at -67%, in engineering at -57%, in biology at -52%, etc.

Granted this isn’t ALL science funding, only funding via the National Science Foundation. But the NSF funds the kind of stuff that no-one else would touch because it has no immediate commercial application – the kind of funding that seems “useless” but in the long-run is ultimately the base of everything.

Plus it’s part of a general pattern of science funding cuts and attacks on universities:

– They slashed funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by 37%

– They’re cutting NASA’s science budget by more than half

– They’re blocking Harvard from enrolling international students and threatening other universities with similar bans

– They’re launching investigations into over 50 universities for alleged “DEI” violations

– They’re withdrawing from the WHO and the Paris Climate Agreement

– Etc.

All in all, you’re left with what can only be characterized as a wholesale assault on the US’s science infrastructure and on the US’s standing in the global academic landscape.

Meanwhile, in parallel, they increase funding for the military and the domestic security apparatus. Which means they’re effectively building an “all muscle, no brain” country to an even bigger extent than was already the case.

If one were to compare the global landscape to the caricatural American high school, the U.S. has obviously chosen to be the muscle-bound bully who might be intimidating today, but is destined to watch from the sidelines as the nerds they used to stuff in lockers go on to cure cancer and colonize Mars.

Case in point, while Trump cuts funding for science and universities across the board, China’s budget calls for an increase in government spending on science and technology by 8.3% this year, and on education by 6.1%. No brownie points for guessing which country will be leading scientific breakthroughs and innovation in the future…

Link to the NYT article.

Vir: Arnaud Bertrand