How Trump Is Dismantling America’s Scientific Research Machine

Hume · 2026-10-31T07:59:05-0400

The Defense Department’s vaunted network of research laboratories — whose scientists helped develop satellite communication, radar technology, and even the computer mouse — was in trouble.

The labs lost a significant share of their staff last year, largely in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to thin the federal work force, the report found.

How Trump Is Dismantling America’s Scientific Research Machine

The system that has driven life-altering discoveries and helped make the United States a superpower is now under intense strain.

www.nytimes.com

ThatOwlWoman · 2026-10-31T08:27:42-0400

Republikkkans have a long history of throttling scientific research and development. Remember when W made stem cell research illegal?

Thankfully other countries are not so shortsighted. Also we can be thankful that scientists pretty much ignore political crap and share data and info and results with each other, at least those living in free countries.

Hume · 2026-10-31T08:29:39-0400

ThatOwlWoman said:
Republikkkans have a long history of throttling scientific research and development. Remember when W made stem cell research illegal?

Thankfully other countries are not so shortsighted. Also we can be thankful that scientists pretty much ignore political crap and share data and info and results with each other, at least those living in free countries.

Fascists always attack the intellectual class. Like Trump attacking universities, scientists, the CDC.

Hume · 2026-10-31T08:34:51-0400

For decades, the United States has funded research at top universities

American universities spent $65 billion in federal money in 2024, accounting for more than half of their total research and development spending.
In less than two years, Mr. Trump has shaken that system to the core.

The upheaval began early in the administration.

DOGE engineered staff firings, and encouraged others to resign across the federal bureaucracy. Within a year, N.I.H. staffing had shrunk by one-fifth. The N.S.F.’s ranks were reduced by a third. Even NASA, which shrank less than other science agencies, lost 20 percent of its employees with Ph.D.s. Those who left included its chief scientist, a climate science expert whose job the administration eliminated.