More than a year into President Trump’s second term in the White House, a grim and undeniable record of attacks on science has been established. Every month since his inauguration has included multiple actions targeting science, scientists, and science-based policies. These are not just individual incidents; taken together, they illustrate how planned and deliberate attacks on federal science infrastructure are causing real harm to people and the planet today, and putting us all at risk in the long run.
We tracked and classified from January 20, 2025 to March 6, 2026. 562 unique attacks on science. Some of the most common types of attacks we have documented include:
- Reversal of numerous anti-science rules and regulations as well as science-based rules and regulations. One example is the government’s efforts to destroy research on the extinction crisis.
- The Trump administration has withheld or ordered federal funding for research based on political ideology, including halting federal research and knowledge development on LGBTQ+ health, climate science, and vaccine effectiveness.
- Depleted scientific capacity at federal agencies threatens their ability to inform the public and respond quickly to dangerous weather patterns and toxic chemicals in the environment.
These are just some of the tactics we have deployed so far. still counting.
We now have 15 months of data to document patterns and point out the harms of these attacks. I use the data below to highlight how a large influx of targeted attacks early in President Trump’s second term led to subsequent attacks and detrimental downstream effects over time.
Before we get into it, a word of caution: This content may be understandably difficult to read, as it is an attack on our democracy, minority groups, and the systems built to promote the environment and public health. But echoing recent comments from my colleagues Gretchen Goldman and Rachel Cleetus, it is important to document these damages not only to acknowledge what was destroyed and the effort it took to build it, but also to protect what is left and encourage those who want to build better systems and policies for the future.
when it all started
Visualizing how the number of attacks on science has increased and changed month on month reveals the Trump administration’s strategy. The first few months were an onslaught of anti-science activity, making it easier to target, attack, and dismantle inconvenient federal institutions and national security. In practice, this has expanded the Trump administration’s power to advance the interests of powerful allies at the expense of other countries, and limited our ability to voice dissent and demand accountability.
Notes. Data is current as of March 6, 2026. January 2025 includes January 20-31. March 2026 includes March 1st to March 6th.
This illustration of the massive scale of attacks on science at the beginning of the second Trump administration suggests not that the danger is waning, but that these attacks were designed to allow the Trump administration to act with impunity. These attacks laid the groundwork for the regime to more easily make decisions based on ideology rather than evidence. Remove staff, scientific discoveries, and regulations that may impede that agenda. and later escalates authoritarian tactics. By removing the scientific foundation from government, the Trump administration has made short-sighted and unjust actions like those outlined in Project 2025 more likely. And those first few months were a period of intense upheaval for the federal science system, the people who work within it, and the people they protect.
11 day catalyst
Throughout January 2025, President Trump and his staff were busy with this demolition effort. The president has signed several anti-science executive orders (EOs), including one that erases gender identity from all areas of government influence and limits recognized birth sex to male and female. With this, he directed the erasure of recognition of intersex, transgender, and non-binary people. He also rescinded previous science-backed orders, including the EO, which sought to provide fair access to groups that have historically been underrepresented in government decision-making. President Trump has appointed people to his administration’s staff with a history of anti-science positions and decisions leading multiple federal agencies, including Lee Zeldin, Sean Duffy, and Doug Burgum. Guided by Project 2025 and a wish list of industry allies, the Trump administration started from day one and inflicted enormous damage by the end of January.
Above all, these early days provided some of the initial foundations for the Trump administration’s year-long effort to dismantle many of the safeguards that have supported our government and democracy.
This pattern continued over the next few months, laying this foundation. Under President Trump’s executive order aimed at diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles, the administration imposed a freeze on grant reviews to the National Science Foundation. These freezes were just the beginning of a chaotic series of events that unfolded across federal agencies. Research funding has fluctuated between suspensions, unfreezing, terminations, and court-forced reopenings.
As a result, I was unable to start new research. An ongoing study was halted midway. Data and resources were wasted and lost. Universities will reduce enrollment and staffing. This means fewer innovations that provide the next best cancer treatment, better ways to track hurricanes and severe weather events, or the best way to protect people from exposure to toxic substances like mercury. All of these intentionally destructive actions fit within the ideological and political agenda driving an administration staffed by people deeply opposed to vaccines, environmental justice, and LGBTQ+ health, to name a few.
Layoffs of scientists, reduction in services
In February 2025, the administration began threatening mass layoffs of federal employees. The deceptively named Department of Government Efficiency began pressuring federal employees in February, with appointees announcing plans to “restructure” the agency in a way that undermined the agency’s mission. Federal scientists and workers across the board lived in palpable fear that their programs, departments, projects, life’s work, and livelihoods might be shut down or completely derailed.
But the loss of vast amounts of scientific capacity, expertise, and organizational knowledge in this first year did not occur in isolation. Job insecurity and loss immediately and over time affected the federal government’s ability and timeliness to track the spread of infectious diseases, investigate and prevent lead poisoning, understand elementary school enrollment and college financial aid needs, and compile and use food quality and safety data and injury and accident data. These are not just individuals losing their jobs. This means all of us living in the United States are losing services established by law and paid for with tax dollars.
integrity at risk
The attacks continued in March, with the government agency’s Scientific Advisory Committee among the top targets. But the end of March also marked the day the National Institutes of Health (NIH) rescinded its Scientific Integrity (SI) policy, known for its transparency and public participation. The agency’s SI policy was created (and recently refined) to protect federal scientists and their research from political interference. This revocation was the first SI domino to fall, effectively weakening safeguards against undue influence, censorship, and retaliation.
After reversing the NIH policy, President Trump signed an EO directing agencies to reinstate the policy. all SI policies reverted to those at the end of his first term, and these safeguards were weakened and, in some cases, completely removed. It also directs government agencies to place scientists explicitly under the control of political appointees, binds them to the president’s political agenda, and replaces them with new policies that enforce the deceptively titled Gold Standard for Science (GSS) principles. As a result, more agency policies were rolled back or revoked in the weeks that followed.
At his request, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published recommendations to government agencies on how to prioritize “GSS” principles in new SI policies that will eventually be released. In the meantime, agencies have been directed to publish interim documents explaining what they are already doing in line with these principles and how they plan to implement them in the future.
Some of the ideas and principles alluded to in these GSS doctrines are well-established norms and practices in the scientific community. The administration pays lip service to ideas such as minimizing conflicts of interest, promoting transparency, and communicating methodological limitations. But its practical approach to science flies in the face of all the practices it claims to support.
Nowhere in this guidance does the government recognize the importance of keeping science independent of influence or of maintaining safeguards and protections to promote scientific freedom. No effort has been made to prevent retaliation against scientists who denounce unethical practices or share information that counters the regime’s preferred narrative. Everything seems secondary to the president’s priorities.
Since the August 22nd OSTP deadline, federal agencies have begun rolling out GSS implementation plans, and several have published new SI policies. We will continue to monitor this situation as it develops.
That’s not all
Here at the Union of Concerned Scientists, we expected this presidency to be marked by numerous attacks on science. First, let’s take the entire first period as an example. The first Trump administration launched an unprecedented number of attacks on science. And despite candidate Trump’s occasional denials during the campaign, the administration has already laid out its strategy with Project 2025. But even against these rigorous standards, the Trump administration has escalated its campaign against science. This is a systematic and strategic attack on the federal science system, on the concept of shared truth and commitment to the common good, and on participatory democracy itself. These attacks are expected to continue.
By stopping in March, we don’t want to give the impression that attacks that have occurred since then are any less powerful, devastating, or important to review. But it shows us a pattern and provides a preview of what’s to come.
My colleagues and I have worked hard to make the way we collect and aggregate attacks on science more efficient and standardized. And soon, we’ll be sharing with you how to make tracking and documenting different patterns of harm even easier and more accessible.
In the meantime, UCS will continue to be here to address harm and advocate for evidence-based policy, especially with your support.
- You can join the fight by contacting your senators and representatives and urging them to co-sponsor the Scientific Integrity Act. The law codifies protections for scientific integrity across federal agencies, making political interference in scientific decisions much more difficult.
- Use this link to stay up to date on other scientific integrity activities.
- I hope we will follow the hard work of our UCS colleagues in condemning the Trump administration’s unjust and authoritarian actions. They will often suggest other ways you can help or get involved.
- Stay informed by signing up for email updates.
The road ahead of us is difficult, but we must remain conscious of it. Together, we can stop the harm and advocate for science that works for us all.
