{"id":180,"date":"2026-05-20T20:39:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=180"},"modified":"2026-05-20T20:39:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:39:21","slug":"the-folly-of-trump-taking-a-wrecking-ball-to-a-crucial-science-advisory-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=180","title":{"rendered":"The Folly of Trump Taking a \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d to a Crucial Science Advisory Board"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"The<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This story was originally published by\u00a0<\/em>Inside Climate News\u00a0and is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Climate Desk\u00a0collaboration.<\/em><\/p>

Read more \u201cWho the Fuck Are These Men?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the start<\/span> of his second term last year, President Donald Trump has sought to weaken the federal foundations underpinning American science, slashing or stalling\u00a0research\u00a0funding, firing or pushing out\u00a0thousands of scientists,\u00a0canceling grants\u00a0for ideological reasons and\u00a0shuttering research facilities\u00a0across the country.<\/p>\n

But even against that bleak backdrop, the administration\u2019s firing of all 22 current members of the National Science Board last week stands out as \u201cone of the darkest moments\u201d of the past year and a half, said Jacquelyn Gill, a paleoecologist and biogeographer at the University of Maine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredibly chilling, and my stomach just dropped to my feet when I saw that the entire board had been fired,\u201d Gill said. \u201cBecause now this last bastion of accountability and transparency and scientific expertise has been dismantled overnight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The National Science Board plays a key role in overseeing the\u00a0National Science Foundation, a major research funder in fields such as chemistry, engineering, biology, the environment, computing, and technology, which supports academic inquiry and helps train the next generation of scientists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NSB and the NSF were designed to be \u201cdriven by our best and brightest scientific experts who are really representing a consensus of where science should go in this country,\u201d Gill said. \u201cIt\u2019s not at the whims of whatever president steps into office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Created by Congress in 1950\u00a0as an independent body of scientific advisors, the board is appointed by the president in staggered six-year terms and chosen for their distinguished service and eminence in their disciplines. Last Friday, members received an email saying their positions were\u00a0\u201cterminated, effective immediately.\u201d\u00a0The NSF website now reads \u201cpending new appointments\u201d instead of listing members\u2019 names.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis board is so important for being able to advise Congress as well as the president on issues that are so important to the country,\u201d said Geraldine Richmond, presidential chair in science and professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon and a former member of the NSB. Richmond was first appointed to the board by President Barack Obama and later by Trump during his first term.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the board\u2019s sudden dismissal, experts fear that its members will be replaced with people chosen for their political loyalty rather than their scientific qualifications and who will be focused on short-sighted partisan concerns rather than the greater societal good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of the board\u2019s importance in the ecosystem that fosters American innovation, observers worry the decision will contribute to a loss of trust in public science and cause long-term damage to American competitiveness in critical research areas and the pipeline for educating and retaining new scientists.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs concerning as this is, it\u2019s not a surprise because of what this administration has been doing now\u201d since January 2025, said Carlos Javier Martinez, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists who previously worked for the National Science Foundation. \u201cIt\u2019s a continuous onslaught of attacks on science.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

Read more A New Climate Democracy Is Taking On the Petrostates<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement to Inside Climate News<\/em>, a White House official implied the decision to fire the board stemmed from a\u00a02021 US Supreme Court\u00a0case related to the appointment of administrative patent judges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This ruling \u201craised constitutional questions about whether non-Senate confirmed appointees can exercise the authorities that Congress gave the National Science Board,\u201d the official said. \u201cWe look forward to working with the Hill to update the statute and ensure the NSB can perform its duties as Congress intended. The National Science Foundation\u2019s work continues uninterrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many of the legal claims they\u2019ve made so far, it\u2019s more of a smoke screen than a really plausible legal argument,\u201d said Lauren Kurtz, an attorney and the executive director at the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund. The Supreme Court ruling cited by the White House is \u201cfactually, legally very different\u201d from the process governing appointments to the NSB, she said. \u201cI think trying to apply it in this case is disingenuous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The statute governing the National Science Board was updated in\u00a0, Kurtz pointed out. Martinez agreed with Kurtz\u2019s assessment of the White House\u2019s argument. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t hold water,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve basically taken a wrecking ball to this [board], and we don\u2019t know exactly how they plan to rebuild it, but if history is any indication, they will want to put in very administration-loyal, probably unqualified people,\u201d Kurtz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout that body, really, the agency is now fully at the behest of the White House,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

In Gill\u2019s view, the NSF is already being guided by industry priorities, especially Silicon Valley\u2019s behemoth tech companies, which have tried to\u00a0win over\u00a0the second Trump administration with donations and public flattery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a scientific enterprise that focuses primarily on the needs of industry just means that we\u2019re losing curiosity-driven science,\u201d she said. That emphasis also shortchanges research, like her own, that focuses on areas industry is typically uninterested in or even hostile to, such as climate change, biodiversity and pollution monitoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201cbeautiful thing\u201d about the NSF, Gill said, was its \u201crecognition that science without an immediate benefit or application was worth pursuing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe studied electricity for hundreds of years before it had any practical purpose. We don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to be missing out on in the decades and centuries to come because we have hamstrung our ability to do exploratory research,\u201d she said. \u201cYou never know what is going to lead to the next breakthrough.\u201d<\/p>

Read more GOP Push for $1 Billion to Fund Trump\u2019s Ballroom Hits Roadblock<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without independent oversight, the National Science Foundation is \u201cfully at the behest of the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Folly of Trump Taking a \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d to a Crucial Science Advisory Board - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=180\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Folly of Trump Taking a \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d to a Crucial Science Advisory Board - 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