Biden had a sensible approach, which of course Trump had to dismantle instantly. ARPA-H and various AI programs. Golden tickets and political priorities are almost surely an invitiation to corruption.
Meanwhile, as massive money flows into AI in the private sector, surely Musk and Thiel and Bezos and Altman and the like can fund any and all such applied research. At the very least, they could pay some taxes before tapping into federal funding for their benefit.
Great piece! Thanks for the clear explanation of Trump’s research policy. If Trump does run scientific research like one of his businesses, we are guaranteed two things: corruption and bankruptcy.
Perhaps the most chilling statistic you provided, Lisa, is that in 2025 Q1 US scientists submitted 32% more job apps abroad than in 2024 and that a March 2025 study found that 1,200 of 1,600 scientists were considering leaving the US.
This wholesale loss of brainpower has a disastrous historic and not-too-distant precedent. When the murderous Nazis in Germany began their ethnic cleansing of Jews, about 2,400 German-Jewish physicists, chemists and mathematicians came to America. The most famous of these emigrees is Albert Einstein. Many of these scientists played vital roles in research and advanced wartime initiatives including the Manhattan Project and accelerated military technology that resulted in the Allied victory through their invaluable research projects.
Just imagine the untold misery, illness and disease that will ensue if we allow our homegrown Nazis to force the brightest and best of our scientific community to seek greener pastures and find places that will support their invaluable work.
Remember when America led the world in technology, and when science was empirically based?
Like following our Constitution, those days seem LONG AGO.
But if we decide we WANT to lead again in science and technology, that takes research; and that research is not always profitable immediately. Chasing the quickest dollar does not result in better science.
Removing science and research from universities, or making the Communist/Kremlin/CCP top-down dictator's priorities the chief driver of research funding, will only serve to make America LESS competitive, LESS technologically innovative and LESS broadly knowledgeable.
Again, another example of why following our Constitution would have prevented ALL of this garbage perpetrated by the illegitimate PedoPINO's corrupt Republican regime.
Vote in November: America was never designed to be a tin-pot dictatorship as Republicans are working to make us.
Every move trump makes signals something corrupted and pathological in his own psychology. There is no point in analyzing it other than to be spectators to our own doom.
In 34 years as a research grant funded faculty member at an R1 university I never found the university’s administrative demands burdensome. Claiming that it is burdensome is just an attempt to justify weakening the research enterprise at US universities. It also reveals ignorance about the value of undirected basic research.
Remember, he told us he loved the poorly educated. It appears he's determined to make that the end state for all America. He is destroying the country. I can only hope wiser heads elsewhere will step into the void he's creating.
Biden had a sensible approach, which of course Trump had to dismantle instantly. ARPA-H and various AI programs. Golden tickets and political priorities are almost surely an invitiation to corruption.
Meanwhile, as massive money flows into AI in the private sector, surely Musk and Thiel and Bezos and Altman and the like can fund any and all such applied research. At the very least, they could pay some taxes before tapping into federal funding for their benefit.
Please keep talking about this.
Great piece! Thanks for the clear explanation of Trump’s research policy. If Trump does run scientific research like one of his businesses, we are guaranteed two things: corruption and bankruptcy.
And incompetence.
Trump running AI? Win-win … just like an Atlantic City casino!
The Trump kakistocracy has much of the country now functioning at what is often called "Peak Dunning-Kruger."
Great comment!
Perhaps the most chilling statistic you provided, Lisa, is that in 2025 Q1 US scientists submitted 32% more job apps abroad than in 2024 and that a March 2025 study found that 1,200 of 1,600 scientists were considering leaving the US.
This wholesale loss of brainpower has a disastrous historic and not-too-distant precedent. When the murderous Nazis in Germany began their ethnic cleansing of Jews, about 2,400 German-Jewish physicists, chemists and mathematicians came to America. The most famous of these emigrees is Albert Einstein. Many of these scientists played vital roles in research and advanced wartime initiatives including the Manhattan Project and accelerated military technology that resulted in the Allied victory through their invaluable research projects.
Just imagine the untold misery, illness and disease that will ensue if we allow our homegrown Nazis to force the brightest and best of our scientific community to seek greener pastures and find places that will support their invaluable work.
Just ask Nazi Germany how that turned out.
Remember when America led the world in technology, and when science was empirically based?
Like following our Constitution, those days seem LONG AGO.
But if we decide we WANT to lead again in science and technology, that takes research; and that research is not always profitable immediately. Chasing the quickest dollar does not result in better science.
Removing science and research from universities, or making the Communist/Kremlin/CCP top-down dictator's priorities the chief driver of research funding, will only serve to make America LESS competitive, LESS technologically innovative and LESS broadly knowledgeable.
Again, another example of why following our Constitution would have prevented ALL of this garbage perpetrated by the illegitimate PedoPINO's corrupt Republican regime.
Vote in November: America was never designed to be a tin-pot dictatorship as Republicans are working to make us.
Every move trump makes signals something corrupted and pathological in his own psychology. There is no point in analyzing it other than to be spectators to our own doom.
"Every move trump makes signals something corrupted and pathological in his own psychology." Superbly stated. (The second sentence...? terrifying)
In 34 years as a research grant funded faculty member at an R1 university I never found the university’s administrative demands burdensome. Claiming that it is burdensome is just an attempt to justify weakening the research enterprise at US universities. It also reveals ignorance about the value of undirected basic research.
😭😭🤬🤬🤬
Thank you for reporting on this extremely important topic. As always, beautifully written.
Remember, he told us he loved the poorly educated. It appears he's determined to make that the end state for all America. He is destroying the country. I can only hope wiser heads elsewhere will step into the void he's creating.