Inside Trump's Science Agenda: Anti-Science Claims, Fauci's Damage, DEI & China w/ Michael Kratsios
In a Nutshell
Trump's OSTP director argues the U.S. must overhaul how it funds and conducts science by replacing politicized criteria like DEI with merit-based "golden ticket" grants, shorter and longer grant durations, and new meta-science units at NSF and NIH to test what actually produces breakthroughs. He warns that China now outspends the U.S. nearly 2-to-1 and publishes 50% more papers, while U.S. science stagnates under aging researchers, collapsing STEM pipelines, and inefficient agency structures. The administration's response is a "New Golden Age" plan prioritizing basic research, accelerating fusion and quantum computing by 2028, and restoring public trust by returning to empirical questioning instead of top-down dogma.
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Michael Kratsios, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), states the administration is not anti-science. The administration released a report called "Science, a new golden age" which demonstrates commitment to the American science and technology enterprise. The goal is for the US to be the home for the next great scientific discoveries, empowering young scientists and creating an ecosystem for working on the hardest problems throughout the country.
OSTP was created in the 1960s to coordinate science and technology policy across the administration. Unlike other countries, the US does not have a single agency for science and technology. Instead, various agencies handle different pieces: the National Science Foundation conducts basic research, the Department of Energy runs national labs, and the Department of Defense has extensive R&D programs including DARPA. OSTP is the only office in the White House that coordinates all these efforts, working with the president to set the national S&T agenda and implement it across agencies.
Kratsios previously served as Chief Technology Officer of the United States in the first Trump administration, running the tech portfolio.
A Nature poll of 2,000 scientists found 86% supported Kamala Harris in the election while Donald Trump received 6%. Kratsios attributes this perception to the scientific community losing its way over the last few decades. Science has been deeply politicized over the last 15-20 years, with dogma replacing proper scientific questioning.
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