Cross Cultural Solidarity

History; in the Service of Solidarity

Trump’s Authoritarian Assault on the Scientific Community

This page is part of a resource collection on far right extremism.

Image: Thousands demonstrate for science and research funding in Washington DC on 7 March 2025. Photograph: Allison Bailey/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

January 23.   Max Kozlov: ‘Never seen anything like this’: Trump’s team halts NIH meetings and travel. In an unprecedented move, research-grant reviews have been suspended indefinitely at the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research.

February 3.   Dan Garisto & Max Kozlov: NSF is scouring research grants for violations of Trump’s orders.

February 7.   Humberto Basilio: ‘We are a target’: scientific society under pressure after Trump DEI crackdown. The American Society for Microbiology deleted terms such as equity from its website, sparking protests from members.

February 13.   Amanda Heidt & Heidi Ledford:Vaccine sceptic RFK Jr is now a powerful force in US science.

February 14.   Alexandra Witze: NASA embraced diversity. Trump’s DEI purge is hitting space scientists hard. Some researchers at NASA and outside it feel betrayed by the changes at the agency, which was known for promoting inclusion in science.

February 17.   Stephanie Nolen: U.S. Terminates Funding for Polio, H.I.V., Malaria and Nutrition Programs Around the World: Here are some of the 5,800 contracts the Trump administration formally canceled this week in a wave of terse emails.

February 24.   Heidi Ledford & Humberto Basilio: Postdocs and PhD students hit hard by Trump’s crackdown on science: As US federal grants remain frozen and budget cuts loom, anxiety and fear grip early-career researchers.

March 6.   Max Kozlov & Smriti Mallapaty: NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants.

March 18.   Dan Diamond: RFK Jr. forces out Peter Marks, FDA’s top vaccine scientist.

March 27.   Dan Garisto: How Trump is following Project 2025’s radical roadmap to defund science.

March 29.   Stephanie Kirchgaessner: Top US vaccine official resigns over RFK Jr’s ‘misinformation and lies.

March 31.   Jessica Glenza: More than 1,900 scientists write letter in ‘SOS’ over Trump’s attacks on science.

April 1.   Scott Neuman: Top scientists warn that Trump policies are causing a ‘climate of fear’ in research.

April 1.   Wired Magazine: The CDC Has Been Gutted: Thousands of CDC employees who worked on things like preventing HIV and lead poisoning have been told they were subject to a reduction in force. Experts say people will die.

April 6.   Carolyn Y. Johnson: NIH scientists have a cancer breakthrough. Layoffs are delaying it. A big step forward in cancer therapy has been slowed by layoffs and new restrictions at the National Institutes of Health, where it was developed.

April 8.   Heidi J. Larson, David M. Bersoff: Science’s big problem is a loss of influence, not a loss of trust

April 10.   Brian Barrett: The Trump Administration Is Turning Science Against Itself What do a “dire wolf,” coal, and a climate research project have in common? They’ve all been co-opted by an administration at war with science.

April 18.   Mark Johnson: DOJ questions science journal about bias, triggering free-speech concerns.

May 1.   Eric Reinhart: The Scary Implications of U.S. Government Attacks on Medical Journals. A Trump-aligned prosecutor’s attack on medical journals is a threat to your health care—and the medical establishment should not comply.

May 2.   Science: U.S. scientists’ lives and careers are being upended. Here are five of their stories. As the second Trump administration sends U.S. science into upheaval, countless researchers are fighting for their futures.

May 6.   Talk Points Memo: Conspiracy of Silence: How Trump is Covertly Strangling Billions in Disease Cure Research

May 8.   Donald Moynihan & Pamela Herd: Institutionalizing politicized science

May 9.   John Drake: The NSF Is Being Dismantled — With Broad Implications For The American Economy

May 12.   Warren Cornwall: Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate. Many worry about retribution. But for others, speaking out is worth the risk.

May 13.   Alondra Nelson: Why I’m Resigning from Positions at the National Science Foundation and Library of Congress

May 16.   Jeffrey Mervis: NSF’s grant cuts fall heaviest on scientists from underrepresented groups: Projects to broaden participation were cut disproportionately—and were often led by Black scientists, women, and those with disabilities.

May 16.   Mark Olalde: Trump Asked EPA Employees to Snitch on Colleagues Working on DEI Initiatives. They Declined.