This will be the death knell of the most prosperous economy in the history of the world. Scientific innovation and the world's best and brightest studying at American universities is one of the biggest reasons for this country's economic prosperity.
Trump is destroying all of this.
Scientists are not going to continue to work in this country under Trump's hostile regime that does not value education and scientific research. It's that simple.
From the Washington Post --
Kartik Sheth, 53, is an astrophysicist and, until a few weeks ago, was the associate chief scientist at NASA. On March 10, he got an unexpected email: “I regret to inform you that you are being affected by a [reduction-in-force] action. … Therefore, you will be separated from NASA at the close of business on April 10, 2025.”
One of 23 NASA employees laid off that day, including everyone in the Office of the Chief Scientist, Sheth is now looking for a job — anywhere. On Friday, he arrived in Paris to attend a conference and check out the environment for scientific research.
“I don’t know if I’ll find a job in America given the cuts to science,” he said. “I think we could have a pretty major brain drain in the country. … I think people are going to start to wonder if this is the place for me to continue to do science.’”
With billions of dollars in research grants eliminated or frozen by the Trump administration, scientists across America in a broad array of fields face an uncertain future and the possibility of layoffs. An untold number like Sheth are looking abroad, thinking of continuing their careers far from the turmoil here.
While it’s unclear how many will actually make the move, American scientists are being actively recruited by countries including France, Spain, Germany and China that are hoping to reverse the flow of expertise into the United States that has been the norm for decades.
“People who were certain that they were going to spend their careers in the U.S., and stay in the U.S. for the next phase, are now totally reconsidering,” said David Baker, a biochemist at the University of Washington who shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2024.
The United States now faces a “wholesale change in mentality” across the science community as a result of President Donald Trump’s actions, he said.
