---
title: "Science policy of the second Trump administration"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_policy_of_the_second_Trump_administration"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:18:18.766303+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Budget plans ==
In April 2025, budget planning documents within the Trump administration indicated the intention to reduce funding for a variety of science agencies in Fiscal Year 2026, which begins on October 1, 2025:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: reduce funding from $9.2 billion to $5.2 billion, a 44% cut.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration science directorate: reduce funding from $7.5 billion to $3.9 billion, a 52% cut.
National Institutes of Health: reduce funding from $47 billion to $27 billion, a 40% cut. Eliminate National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Nursing Research.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: reduce funding from $6.1 billion to $4.5 billion, a 26% cut. Eliminate the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
National Science Foundation: reduce funding from $9 billion to $4, a 55% cut.
These budget plans were reported in the press at the "passback" stage, at which the Office of Management and Budget sends its preferred revisions to agency budget requests. These cuts were formalized in the administration's FY 2026 budget, released on May 2.

== Scientific publishing ==
Multiple scientific journals received letters in April 2025 from the Department of Justice under interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Edward R. Martin Jr. asking six questions about their editorial processes. Journals receiving the letter included CHEST and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). A former editor in chief of Science stated the letters were an attempt to intimidate scientists, and other experts stated they could have a chilling effect. Prior to inauguration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had mentioned potentially prosecuting journals for not publishing "real science", naming NEJM specifically. Other journals had received the letters but did not reveal it out of fear of retribution.
Kennedy stated on the Ultimate Human podcast that government scientists would no longer publish in preeminent journals such as NEJM, The Lancet, or The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), believing them to be corrupt and controlled by the pharmaceutical industry; instead, scientists would publish in government-run journals. This would be a historical reversal, as peer review arose in the country to avoid undue government influence on research. Funding sources for such journals were not specified, and at the time two NIH-funded journals had paused activities because of funding uncertainty, and Health and Human Services (HHS) had proposed cutting two journals run by the CDC.
The administration began cutting subscriptions in June to Springer Nature, which publishes over 3000 journals including its flagship Nature. NIH officials initially stated that their subscriptions remained, though an HHS spokesperson later stated all contracts with Springer Nature were terminated, stating "Precious taxpayer dollars should be  [sic] not be used on unused subscriptions to junk science".

== Reactions and consequences ==
Largely made by executive order, the cuts are drawing many lawsuits and marches and rallies against them.
By February 2025, the scale of funding in question began raising concerns of "brain drain", and 75% of scientists responding to a March survey by Nature were considering leaving the country. On March 31, an open letter for the American people was published, warning the danger of attacks on science from the Trump administration, including threats to universities, federal grant cancelations and ideological funding reviews, mass federal government layoffs, resignations and censorship. It was signed by over 1,900 scientists of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The letter stated "We see real danger in this moment, [...] We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry. We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation's scientific enterprise is being decimated. [...] If our country's research enterprise is dismantled, we will lose our scientific edge. [...] The damage to our nation's scientific enterprise could take decades to reverse."
By April, US scientists are reportedly looking for career opportunities abroad in greater numbers due to the administration's slashing of science funding and workforce numbers, with a 32% increase in applications for jobs abroad and a 35% increase in US-based users browsing jobs abroad, with economists considering which other countries might benefit most.
In June, over 300 NIH staff signed the Bethesda Declaration condemning mass layoffs and program cuts and calling on Jay Bhattacharya to restore funding to the agency. The letter was co-signed by thousands of scientists internationally and over 20 Nobel laureates. Also that month a federal judge ruled that the cutting of hundreds of NIH grants for ostensible focus on gender identity or DEI was "arbitrary and capricious" and ordered that grants be restored.
Historian Paul Josephson compared the damage to American science done by the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to the promotion of Lysenkoism in the Stalinist Soviet Union over the correct biological understanding of genetics after the appointment of Trofim Lysenko in 1940. Josephson also compared the more general repression of science in the Soviet Union to Trumpist attacks on universities and scientific research.

== See also ==
Anti-intellectualism
Censorship
Political interference with science agencies by the first Trump administration
2025 United States government online resource removals
Science policy of the United States
Science and technology in the United States
United States federal budget
NOAA under the second presidency of Donald Trump
Weather modification projects during the second presidency of Donald Trump

== References ==

== Further reading ==
Pagel, Christina; Buse, Kent; McKee, Martin (2024-11-28). "Evidence abandoned: Trump's cabinet and the fallout for science". BMJ. 387 q2654. doi:10.1136/bmj.q2654. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 39608840.
Tollefson, Jeff; Kozlov, Max; Witze, Alexandra; Garisto, Dan (2025-02-20). "Trump's siege of science: how the first 30 days unfolded and what's next". Nature. 638 (8052): 865–867. Bibcode:2025Natur.638..865T. doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00525-1. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 39979570.
"How the Trump administration is halting scientific research: Short Wave". NPR. Retrieved 2025-03-25.
Khullar, Dhruv (2025-03-09). "Trump's Agenda Is Undermining American Science". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2025-03-25.