All’s fair on Capitol Hill.
In response to the Trump administration’s wide-ranging science cuts and grant cancellations, researchers and scientists staged a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building in Washington D.C. to bring awareness to what potential knowledge the United States could miss out on as a result.
The fair is being held just days after Trump signed the “Big, Beautiful Bill” into law, which codifies many spending cuts and funding cancellations for scientific endeavors of all types—from climate research to medical trials. Billions of dollars that were destined for researchers and scientists in the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and other organizations.
BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled. pic.twitter.com/uaSM66Q31q— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) July 8, 2025
BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled. pic.twitter.com/uaSM66Q31q
In effect, the U.S. is ceding its place as a leader in research and development—a role it has held for decades, and which has led to the development of cures for diseases and disorders, advanced military technology, and, of course, put a man on the moon. The funding cuts and cancellations are widespread, and it’s difficult to lasso them all. But even with what’s been cancelled or clawed back so far, Trump is looking to reduce spending on science further. In the budget request he released in May, billions more would be cut from NIH, NSF, the Department of Education, and completely eliminate funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, and more.
In response, Sudip Parikh, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), released a statement saying just how dangerous the cuts could be.
“If enacted, the FY26 budget request would end America’s global scientific leadership. The cuts to science would imperil our nation’s future health, security and prosperity. This budget proposal stands in stark contrast to the President’s call for a renewed commitment to American scientific leadership,” he wrote. “Congress has demonstrated a bipartisan commitment to investment in research and must do so again to answer the President’s call.
That’s all to say that despite the demonstrations by scientists, and the potential long-term economic effects of cuts, the Trump administration may still not be done.
Just within the past couple of days, Trump cut off researchers in the U.K. from utilizing data collected by U.S. satellites to study pollution and climate change, according to reporting from the U.K.-based The i Paper.
Per that report, Rachel Cauley, OMB communications director at the White House, responded to worried scientists by saying that “President Trump ran on defunding woke, weaponized, and wasteful government and his budget proudly does that by cutting funding for the Green New Scam, projects like ‘gender-responsive agricultural adaptation’ in Guatemala and Mexico, and ‘Equity Climate and Health’ workshops for ‘transgender women, and those who identify as non-binary.’ Under Trump’s leadership, the US is funding real science again.”
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