Trump Is Attacking Climate Science. Scientists Are Fighting Back.
All of these extraordinary actions came on top of more pragmatic and constitutional approaches to budget cuts. The president’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, released in May 2025, was explicitly billed as “ending the new green scam” and “eliminating funding for the globalist climate agenda.” At the NSF, the proposed budget cut funding for geosciences by more than 40 percent, ocean observations by about 80 percent, and projects explicitly related to global change research by 97 percent. At NASA, the budget roughly halved funding for science in general and Earth sciences in particular. At NOAA, it eliminated the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. At the U.S. Geological Survey, she eliminated the ecosystems program, which supports most of the agency’s climate-related work. At the Department of Energy, he cut the biological and environmental research program by about 60 percent, eliminating the “environmental” part. Of course, the Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the authority to appropriate funds. And on a bipartisan basis, Congress has pushed back against cuts to science funding agencies. However, under these guidelines, within certain limited specific constraints from Congress, it seems likely that the administration will direct spending according to the priorities outlined in the budget request, and many of the programs targeted for cuts in the proposed budget could continue to be hamstrung. For climate research, the outlook remains bleak. Graduate programs, for example, are essential to training the next generation of American researchers. Yet, facing a deeply uncertain funding environment, many programs are unwilling to make the multi-year commitments necessary to onboard promising new applicants.
Censorship and propaganda
Meanwhile, the administration is working to control and censor the scientific process in several areas, including public health and climate science. Two executive orders, one issued in May and the other in August, require each federal agency to have scientific information approved by a senior policy official and approve announcements of funding opportunities and grants. The NSF – which of all funding agencies has most jealously protected the autonomy of its funding decisions against political micromanagement – is adopting a new structure that reduces the agency’s access to scientific expertise and weakens its independence. The administration has shut down government websites like GlobalChange.gov and Climate.gov, while also removing National Park Service postings on climate change.
