Science in the age of Trump was diminished at the peril of the health and well-being for not only people and other living things, but Earth itself, including its air, water, land, and other natural resources. Let’s not let it ever happen again. Trump must be defeated in November.

Trump’s Attack on Science

Science was attacked hundreds of times during the Trump years, and the effects were detrimental not only to science, but to the very nature of democracy. One of the best analyses that I found was a report issued by the UCS, whose researchers identified seven types of attacks on science. I examined their data and counted the number of attacks in each category. Leading the list is halting, editing, or suppressing scientific research studies. To give you an idea of how Trump’s administration damaged government science, I’ve included a few examples for each type of attack. As you can tell from Table 1, the UCS research on the attacks on science by Trump is staggering.

Another way to look at how Trump and his sycophants worked to dismantle the crucial work that scientists do is to examine a timeline of their damage. The chart in Table 2 is an overview of some effects that Trump and his administrators had on the nature of science in the federal government. The chronology is plainly suggestive of how Trump shockingly damaged science. The chronology also highlights Trump’s ignorance of science and the danger he posed to the American public, especially when he recommended injecting the body with bleach. This ignorance is still extremely difficult for me to believe, but I’ve seen the video. The chronology starts with the travel ban in January 2017.

Chronology of How Trump Damaged Science

This post highlights the wider actions of the Trump administration on the environment, including withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, weakening fuel efficiency standards, or cutting back on environmental research. Undoubtedly, the Trump administration worked actively to dismantle science-based health and safety protections, sideline scientific evidence, and inflict harm on the progress on scientific integrity.

Several reports have been published that document the attacks on science and medicine. In “The State of Science in the Trump Era,” the authors concluded that a pervasive pattern of sidelining science existed in critical decision-making, compromising our nation’s ability to meet current and future public health and environmental challenges.264 Fortunately, scientists and their allies pushed back, as well as Congress. For example, the first Trump budget recommendation included huge cuts in science departments and agencies.

The Trump administration wanted the EPA budget cut by 30 percent, which would have decimated the agency. In the end, Congress passed a slight increase in EPA’s budget. However, scientists were muzzled in some departments and needed to seek permission to speak to the press, publish articles, and attend conferences. In other departments and agencies, rules were changed that effected the integrity of science research. Science in the age of Trump did not fare well; nor did citizens of the United States.

The people that Trump appointed to White House positions and the appointees of many of the departments responsible for science created workplace environments that caused many scientists to leave. Trump also interfered directly in the work of scientists, as discussed in some of the blog posts in the chapters ahead.

The CDC, EPA, and other departments and agencies in the federal government were undermined by the Trump administration. Agencies and departments were reduced in size, and morale among scientists and staff dropped to exceptionally low levels. Several top scientists resigned. When the Biden transition team began to size up the effect of the Trump administration on science, they were shocked by the damage that had been done. Fortunately, Biden appointed a powerful team of experienced administrators and scientists to bring order and professionalism back to science at the federal level.

Calamity

But now we face a calamity that we’ve never faced before. Trump is deranged, and can be easily led astray not only by three or four dictators abroad, but those Americans who have created the Project 2025 document. Trump can not enter the White House again. He’s a con-man, a convicted felon and fraud. How in the world did we get here.

For more information, refer to: Hassard, Jack. The Trump Files: An Account of the Trump Administration’s Effect on American Democracy, Human Rights, Science and Public Health (pp. 216-218). Northington-Hearn Publishing LLC. Kindle Edition.