The Trump administration has carried out more than 400 attacks on science in its first six months, according to a report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The report, which tracked attacks between January 20 and June 30, 2025, documented 402.
“The pace and severity of the administration’s attacks on science is extremely alarming,” said Darya Minovi, lead author of the report. “It indicates the administration is enacting a deliberate plan to dismantle federal science capacity, undermine evidence-based policymaking and erode democracy.”
Over the last six months, the administration has decimated the federal workforce by eliminating federal jobs and replacing qualified experts with political loyalists. It has cut at least 120,000 federal positions, slashing capacity at agencies that safeguard public health, respond to emergencies and regulate pollution.
Diminishing federal capacity has also impeded prevention and response efforts to the worst measles outbreak in the U.S. in decades.
At the same time, it has significantly decreased U.S. research capacity. Over the past six months, the National Institutes of Health – the largest funder of biomedical research worldwide – awarded 54% fewer grants for research on topics including cancer, infectious disease and environmental health compared to the same period in previous years.
It has also diminished access to information, opportunities for public participation, and slashed anti-corruption safeguards. It has altered or erased databases and at least 847 webpages that provided critical health and environmental data, primarily in climate change and environmental justice; terminated 51 out of 188 active advisory committees tasked with providing federal agencies with robust, independent scientific and technical guidance; and bypassed public comment on rollbacks of major environmental regulations that will harm public health.
For example, without public comment, it gave more than 530 industrial facilities, 90% located within five miles of a school or daycare and over 70% percent within marginalized communities, the opportunity to request exemptions from complying with air pollution standards, posing health risks to people across the country.
“These attacks are about power,” said Minovi. “By silencing science that does not align with its agenda to line the pockets of polluters and billionaires, the Trump administration is stripping the public of its right to information, participation and protection.”
The report calls on federal agency leaders and lawmakers to resist political interference in science, protect federal scientists from retaliation for sharing facts that do not align with the administration’s agenda, and restore public participation.
“Science is a cornerstone of democracy,” said Minovi. “When science is sidelined, people get hurt. Lawmakers and agency leaders must act with urgency to defend the institutions and people who safeguard our health, environment and future.”
For more information on the analysis in the report that looks at the location of facilities that may request exemptions to pollution regulations, see a blog post by Minovi.