“Yet truth is dangerous, and science is a public threat. We must keep it carefully chained and muzzled.” These are the words of Mustapha Mond in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, a fictional dictator who shackles knowledge to secure power. What was once conceived as dystopia has now found its echo in reality – in a government that has made the fight against science a central pillar of its grip on power.
What is currently unfolding under Donald Trump is not a savings program, nor an ideologically driven budget debate – it is a full-on assault on the foundations of scientific thinking in the United States. The proposed budget for 2026 includes cuts of nearly 40 percent to the National Institutes of Health, 56 percent to the National Science Foundation, and massive reductions to NASA, the CDC, NOAA, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the US Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency – and virtually every public institution dedicated to research, data analysis, or science-based policymaking.
If a hostile foreign power wanted to sabotage America’s innovative strength and global leadership, it would hardly act differently. But why does a government that sees itself as patriotic, business-friendly, and truth-seeking declare war on science of all things? The answer is complex – and disturbing. There is no master plan, no coherent strategy. Instead, three currents converge: religious anti-rationalism, authoritarian anti-intellectualism, and a technocratic cynicism that only acknowledges knowledge when it is profitable. First, there is the evangelical right, which has long seen science as a threat to faith. Movements like the “Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation” condemn environmental research as a green heresy – a substitute religion that betrays the biblical mandate of dominion. Its founder, E. Calvin Beisner, calls for laws based on the Old Testament – including corporal punishment for children and the banning of so-called deviant lifestyles. What unites this movement is its will to interpret the world without empiricism – science is not seen as a tool for understanding, but as a secular instrument of subjugation.
On the other side stand the New Right, shaped by think tanks such as the Claremont Institute. For them, science is part of a global woke administrative apparatus – a “NGO complex,” as Michael Anton, Trump’s head of policy planning, puts it – a sort of worldwide cartel that uses facts and expertise to block the will of the people. What they want is a Red Caesar – a strongman who governs without being held back by arguments or evidence. In this worldview, science is not a corrective but a bastion of liberal modernity that must be destroyed. And finally, there are the libertarian tech billionaires who have allied themselves with authoritarian populism – not out of conviction, but out of opportunism. For them, science is just another field for private exploitation. Their logic: if artificial intelligence drives the market, public research is no longer needed. Truth, they suggest, lies in profitability. That fundamental research, vaccine development, climate modeling, and cancer studies fall by the wayside is an acceptable cost. Profit replaces method, and whoever pays decides what is true.
This dangerous mix – religious dogmatism, anti-democratic ideology, and techno-capitalist arrogance – now has the American university system in its sights. The conservative base has long viewed universities as liberal strongholds where conservative voices are suppressed. The Trump administration is targeting them where they are vulnerable: funding. A large portion of research – particularly in medicine – is funded by the federal government. And it is precisely this funding that is now on the chopping block. Put differently: this administration is willing to sacrifice progress in cancer research to send a political message. It allows talent to flee abroad, laboratories to shut down, careers to collapse, and discoveries to be delayed – all in the name of waging war on a supposedly woke elite.
Another target is the so-called administrative state – a term that is hard to define but in right-wing discourse encompasses everything about governance that is invisible yet essential: air safety, food regulation, energy oversight. What cannot be easily cut – like the military or infrastructure – remains. What produces long-term benefit – like climate research, basic biology, or pandemic preparedness – is eliminated. The long-term stability of democracy is being sacrificed for the short-term triumph of authoritarianism. What we are seeing now are only the immediate consequences: canceled programs, dismissed researchers, dismantled institutions. The long-term effects – slower medical breakthroughs, poor preparation for environmental disasters, and the erosion of America’s standing in global science – will not be fully felt for another ten or twenty years. And by then, it may be too late. Congress could act – but it won’t, as long as Trump and his movement hold the Republican Party hostage. The courts can slow the assault – but they cannot reverse its course alone. Private foundations can fill some gaps – but they cannot replace systemic funding. What is needed now is a societal counterforce. Scientists must publicly explain the value of their work. Historians must show what power American universities and publicly funded research have brought to humanity. Civil society must rise – not only for science, but for a future grounded in truth. Because what today seems like an ideological attack may tomorrow cost lives we could have saved.
English 
German 
