Trump’s science cuts are great news — for other countries

Andres Oppenheimer

Of all the questionable things President Trump has done recently — such as starting trade wars with traditional U.S. allies, threatening to invade friendly countries and pushing for bills that would balloon the U.S. deficit — one of the most important, yet least discussed, is his defunding of U.S. science programs.

Since the start of his second term on Jan. 20, Trump has set in motion the most sweeping cuts to scientific research in modern U.S. history, including public grants for research into Alzheimer’s, cancer and other major diseases.

In addition to cutting research funds for leading U.S. universities, such as Harvard and Princeton, Trump’s 2026 budget has led to the planned layoffs of thousands of scientists at some of the world’s leading scientific institutions.

Many U.S. scientists are now moving to Canada and Europe, where leaders in France and other countries have already opened their doors — and their budgets — to America’s scientific refugees.

A White House document proposing the 2026 budget calls for a 57% reduction for the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which supports basic research in science and engineering, from $9 billion to $3.9 billion. It also calls for a 40% cut in the funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s biggest public funder of biomedical research, from $47 billion to $27 billion.

To put these figures in perspective, Trump’s “Big, beautiful bill,” which Congress passed on Thursday, included $45 billion in new funds to build detention facilities — critics call them “concentration camps” — for undocumented immigrants. As I have shown in previous columns, most current immigration detainees are not violent criminals, but hard-working people seeking a better life.

Already, the NIH has canceled more than 2,400 research projects, the respected journal Nature reported on June 27. Trump’s budget cuts to U.S. science are “unprecedented,” and could have “catastrophic effects,” Nature said in an earlier report on May 15.

The Trump administration says the NIH, NSF, NASA and other government-funded scientific institutions were rife with waste and politically-motivated “woke” programs, and needed to be made more efficient. Many grants were awarded under non-scientific diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) requirements that the Trump administration has now terminated, administration officials say.

But most scientists say that, while there’s probably some degree of waste in any large organization, Trump’s budget cuts are a catastrophic overreaction. The administration is killing research programs that could save millions of lives in America and around the world, as well as crippling U.S. innovation in cutting-edge industries.

Rep. Bill Foster, D-Illinois, the only member of Congress with a PhD in physics, told me in an interview that “Trump is wrecking American science.” He added, “I understand why you would have to cut things, including science. But this is done in a very sloppy and, frankly, stupid way.”

Trump’s budget cutters have simply looked for science programs that had the terms “diversity,” or “inclusion” somewhere in their paperwork, regardless of their merit, critics say. In many cases, such words were just included pro forma in top-quality scientific research programs.

Foster told me he already knows of cases in which professors working on five-year research programs have just learned that their last year of funding is being cut off. They have had to lay off their research teams, leading many scientists to seek jobs abroad.

“Right now, America is bleeding scientific talent,” Foster told me. While much of the U.S. scientific leadership was built thanks to European scientists who moved to America in World War II, such as Nobel laureate Albert Einstein, the reverse trend is taking place now, he added.

Indeed, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently announced a $566 million plan at Sorbonne University to lure U.S. science refugees. The program is officially called “Choose Europe for Science.”

In an obvious reference to the United States, Macron said at the announcement ceremony that “Nobody could imagine a few years ago that one of the great democracies of the world would eliminate research programs on the pretext that the word ‘diversity’ appeared in its program,” according to a New York Times report.

When I asked Foster why he thinks Trump is crippling America’s scientific programs, he said, “I think he’s trying to achieve popularity with his base, which comes largely from rural areas.” He added that people living in rural areas may not be fully aware of the benefits of science, and are more likely to blame intellectuals and scientists for the country’s problems.

Maybe so. But whatever the reason, crippling U.S. science will have dire consequences. America will pay not just in lost discoveries, but in lost lives, lost leadership and a diminished future for generations to come.