President Donald Trump’s deep cuts in federal research funding and crackdown on immigration have sparked fears the United States will suffer a brain drain if scientists flee, crushing the country’s ability to drive scientific innovation.
Federal scientists, foreign researchers in the U.S. and scientists in other countries say the chill under Trump has caused angst among visiting scientists who worry about conducting research the administration deems inappropriate as it revokes the visas of hundreds of students in the U.S.
Even American scientists no longer view the U.S. as a welcome place to do their work. A poll released by Nature last month showed that 75 percent of the 1,608 U.S. researchers surveyed said they are considering leaving the country in response to Trump’s actions to control scientific activities.
Trump has imposed restrictions on spending for international conferences, issued directives to throttle communication with global partners, and moved to curtail and defund climate and environmental justice work across agencies. This week, his administration cut funding to a sweeping federal climate study and canceled spending for Princeton University that will hamper the global vanguard of climate modeling laboratories.
