Tag: Trump attack on science

Coronavirus pushes Trump to rely on experts he has long maligned

Washington Post logoWhen President Trump sought to reassure a nation on edge over the coronavirus, he was flanked Wednesday evening at the White House by more than a half-dozen public health experts.

But the very officials whose expertise the president is now counting on are part of the vast bureaucracy of scientists and other public servants that Trump has repeatedly maligned, ignored and jettisoned.

Throughout his more than three years as president, Trump has obsessed, at times conspiratorially, over what he calls the “deep state” — the thousands of career government specialists in national security, intelligence, science and other areas whose expertise he shuns in part because he suspects they are disloyal saboteurs. Continue reading.

Science Under Attack: How Trump Is Sidelining Researchers and Their Work

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — In just three years, the Trump administration has diminished the role of science in federal policymaking while halting or disrupting research projects nationwide, marking a transformation of the federal government whose effects, experts say, could reverberate for years.

Political appointees have shut down government studies, reduced the influence of scientists over regulatory decisions and in some cases pressured researchers not to speak publicly. The administration has particularly challenged scientific findings related to the environment and public health opposed by industries such as oil drilling and coal mining. It has also impeded research around human-caused climate change, which President Trump has dismissed despite a global scientific consensus.

But the erosion of science reaches well beyond the environment and climate: In San Francisco, a study of the effects of chemicals on pregnant women has stalled after federal funding abruptly ended. In Washington, D.C., a scientific committee that provided expertise in defending against invasive insects has been disbanded. In Kansas City, Mo., the hasty relocation of two agricultural agencies that fund crop science and study the economics of farming has led to an exodus of employees and delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in research. Continue reading