In 1633, the Roman Inquisition put Italian astronomer Galileo on trial for heresy. His crime: defending the view of Copernicus that the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun. His book violated Pope Urban VIII’s teachings. Found guilty of heresy, he was forced to recant and sentenced to lifelong house arrest. His book was banned and future works forbidden.
The first 18 months of the Trump administration suggest such absurd attacks on science and scientists. This is the worst period in our nation’s history for the advancement of science and its use in governance. Instead of being guided by papal teachings and Christian dogma, the administration follows the prescriptions of the 902 pages of Project 2025, including bending science and history to meet its radical dictates threatening our democracy.
From January to November 2025, more than 10,100 Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) or health fields were forced to leave government service or voluntarily left across 14 U.S. government agencies. These scientific experts had 106,636 years of federal work experience researching and informing critical decision-making on public health, the environment, food and pharmaceutical safety, disease prevention, air and water quality and other basic research on life-saving safety measures.
These departures are only the tip of the iceberg for the massive assault on science, scientists and scientific research that do not meet the ideology of Project 2025. The exodus has continued as many more Ph.D. scientists have left since Nov. 1. Many thousands of non-Ph.D. scientists also have departed from U.S. government service since January 2025.
The assault extends to our finest research universities and to the cancellation of billions of dollars in research projects by scholars at these universities and elsewhere. More than 4,000 grants across 600 universities and research institutions have been terminated, valued at $6.9 billion to $8.2 billion. Billions more were frozen across other biomedical and scientific sectors. Many of these were ongoing critical research projects. Harvard and many other prestigious research universities were targeted for their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts as well as other progressive policies. Like Galileo, they were forced to recant or lose billions in research dollars.
The Center for Strategic & International Studies, a scholarly D.C.-based think tank, noted, “Universities are among the United States’ most enduring sources of competitive advantage and a key pillar of the nation’s innovation system. Home to more than 35 of the world’s top 100 research universities, the United States owes many of its most transformative inventions of the past century to universities — from the internet and Global Positioning System (GPS) to CRISPR gene editing and mRNA vaccines.”
These breakthroughs, along with countless others to come out of university labs, have delivered significant benefits: new industries, sustained economic growth and strengthened defense capabilities. Indeed, by advancing frontier technologies and training the next generation of scientists, engineers and business leaders, universities help sustain U.S. leadership in strategic domains such as semiconductors, AI, quantum computing and biotechnology, thereby strengthening the country’s ability to compete with rivals and safeguarding its security interests.
The foundation of this remarkable performance is federally funded university research. By combining steady and substantial federal investment, a sophisticated system of technology commercialization and world-class talent and facilities, university research transforms public funding into lasting economic, health and national security benefits. While no other nation does this as well as or at the scale of the U.S., China is now rapidly emerging as a peer competitor.”
At the federal level, the EPA’s sharp reduction in scientists compromised its ability to protect public health. The Trump budget for FY 2026 proposed more cuts, including a 66% cut in science program staff to the lowest staffing levels in 40 years. A 25% cut in the federal R & D science budget was proposed from $198 billion to $154 billion.”
The American Association for the Advancement of Science warned that the R&D cut “would essentially end America’s longstanding role as the world leader in science and innovation.” Instead of fostering and cherishing our world-renowned scientists and their research, this administration has been hell-bent to oust all researchers and end research that does not conform with the ideologies of the destructive dictates of Project 2025.
Remarkably, the House and Senate, in a bipartisan effort, rejected the White House’s proposed cuts and allocated $188 billion.
By late April, the EPA’s prestigious Office of Research and Development (ORD), in existence for 50 years, had been dismantled. Its 1,500 scientific experts had been laid off, reassigned or pressured to retire. They included top medical doctors, toxicologists, epidemiologists, biologists, chemists, ecologists, physiologists, microbiologists and environmental and chemical engineers.
The EPA website states that “the ORD conducts the research for EPA that provides the foundation for credible decision-making to safeguard human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants.”
Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, who ran ORD under the first Trump administration, said its destruction “is an assault on science. The EPA just blew up a very well-performing organization that was making a difference, not only in the country but in the world.” The intention is the blockage of science-based decisions undergirding stronger regulations on pollutants.
The administration proposed that ORD’s functions be placed under politically appointed sycophants in the EPA regulatory program. More than 40 former EPA officials from Democratic and Republican administrations protested dismantling ORD to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin as it “would undermine the agency’s legal duties and scientific integrity.”
In a rare public display of opposition by current EPA employees, 620 of them submitted a Declaration of Dissent to Zeldin and members of Congress. They alleged that Zeldin’s actions threatened the health of all Americans by abolishing ORD and by other anti-science and anti-environment initiatives.
In July 2025, Zeldin responded by tracking down 144 signers and placing them on a two-week leave “pending an administrative investigation.” Leave was extended for most signors. Twenty were fired. Legal and other administrative actions are ongoing.
On April 24, the Trumpian assault on science escalated when all 22 members of the National Science Board (NSB), the governing body for the National Science Foundation (NSF), were terminated. These prominent scientists included astrophysicists, engineers, AI specialists and researchers. Lawmakers and science advocates condemned the move as an unprecedented attack on the independence of federal scientific institutions and basic research oversight.
The termination took place just before the board was set to convene and release a major policy report evaluating U.S. research and development competitiveness relative to global rivals like China.
In addition to advising the administration and Congress on national science policy, the NSB oversees $9 billion in NSF research grantmaking. The administration had cut 205 NSF Ph.Ds. between January and November 2025, constituting 40% of its Ph.D. workforce. They also rescinded many NSF-approved and ongoing research grants.
The firings were seen as another step to destroy the independence of the 76-year-old research agency. Once again, the administration could not tolerate an independent scientific group making research decisions that Trumpian ideologues could not control.
Next week’s column will follow up on more of the administration’s perversion of science, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s distorted anti-vaccine science as secretary of Health and Human Services and Trump’s termination of 100 science advisory committees to federal agencies.
Gerald Winegrad represented the greater Annapolis area as a Democrat in the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate for 16 years. Contact him at gwwabc@comcast.net.
