
Donald Trump took office as an American president for the second time a month ago.Credit
In the aftermath of World War II, American leaders The opinion of the scientific progress was adopted It is “the main key to our security as a nation, for our best health, more jobs, a higher standard of living, and our cultural progress.” Over the next eight decades, government officials approved on both sides of the political corridor to invest in American science. Just one month after the second administration of Republican President Donald Trump, scientists fear that this consensus will be disintegrated for a long time.
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Based on an unprecedented speed, the administration cleared thousands of employees in American science agencies and announced reforms for research grants that can significantly reduce federal financial support. Discounts are part of a greater effort to radically reduce government spending and reduce their working size.
Despite the intervention of American courts in some cases, Republicans in both rooms of the American conference – which greatly prevented Trump’s efforts to reduce science financing during his first term as president from 2017 to 2021 – often in line with the Trump 2.0 agenda. For many researchers, this first month indicates the reorganization of priorities that may affect science and society for decades to come.
“These measures are” unprecedented. ” “No one has seen before [presidential] Transition where one of the most valuable parts is dismantled in our governmental institutions. “
The White House did not respond to Trump natureRequest to comment.
here, nature The actions of the usurped Trump team in science (scrolling down to see the schedule “Science Effects: One month of Trump 2.0”) and talks to policy monitors about the next.
Fast and angry
American science reform began within hours of Trump’s inauguration on January 20, when dozens of executive orders occurred, which are presidential directives on how the government works within the current laws.
Some of these orders were expected, including Withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement 2015 To curb global climate emissions and end the nation World Health Organization. Others had sudden and immediate ripples through the scientific community.
one Employly try to determine only two biologistsMales and females, and prohibiting federal measures “that enhance or implant gender ideology”. Biomedical medical research agencies such as diseases and prevention control centers (CDC) have defended to respond, among other things, to download data groups from their electronic websites and withdraw manuscripts from scientific magazines to disinfect terms including “sex” and “transgender people.
Researchers, doctors and others protest the actions of the Trump administration outside the US Department of Health and Humanitarian Services in Washington, DC on February 19.Credit: Matthew Roder/CIS
Another executive order Prohibiting Trump’s “illegal and immoral discrimination programs, by name” diversity, fairness and integration “(Dei). Any federal employee who has not been reported by colleagues who challenge Dei orders will face “negative consequences”, according to an email sent to government workers. For many scientists, the agencies have begun to end the DEI programs, including environmental justice efforts, which are programs aimed at protecting low -income societies exposed to pollution and climate change. Even some scientific societies and private research institutions that have been cleaned from their websites. in One of Trump’s ordersHe called for an investigation of non -profit institutions and organizations and other special entities that are incompatible.
On January 27, just one week of the new administration, the Trump budget office froze all the scholarships and federal loans, saying it needed to review government spending to ensure its compatibility with the executive orders. Chaos erupted as agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the National Corporation for the American Science (NSF)-have arrested both the main financiers of the basic sciences-grant payments, the review boards to finance the research grant and the parked communications were canceled. The federal judge temporarily prevented the matter, but the disturbances and confusion continue.
The main researchers who lead the research teams in this environment say, a university scientist who has asked not to be identified because their research is funded by multiple American agencies. They say: “Everything you have to manage your giving and your team,” adding that “there is a lot of fear that people do not want to say or do the wrong thing” and thus lose financial support for their work. “It is completely messy. I lose sleep.”
Piece and burns
Trump’s unprecedented directives fell as his partnership flourished with billionaire businessman Elon Musk. The couple works together to reduce spending and federal dismantling agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development, which funds international diseases research, prevention and care.
To achieve this goal, the Trump administration – which is operating through the US Department of Government, which Musk advises – has moved quickly to frustration and repression in the federal workforce, including about 280,000 scientists and engineers. Initially, they were asked to display e -mail on January 30 to all federal employees “moving from low productivity functions in the public sector to the higher productivity functions in the private sector”; About 75,000 employees resigned at a later time, and promised them to keep their salaries until September. In mid-February, workers’ demobilization of test staff across the US government-who are usually appointed to their positions during the past two years, which means that researchers were particularly affected.
Trump in partnership with billionaire businessman Elon Musk (left) to reduce the size of the United States government.Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getti
“I cannot even convey the obstacles and cruelty of workers’ harsh.” It is said that emails to notify workers that they have been left a comprehensive reason for poor performance to finish-even for those whose “exceptional” performance was classified by supervisors. “They took some of the best and brightest people who just joined the government and expelled them,” the researcher says.