Trump’s War on Academia: A Threat to Research and Education in the US

S Krishnaswamy

THE Trump administration has started an unprecedented attack on American higher education. Using federal funds as a tool to seize control of universities and throttle academic freedom, a momentous shift in the US education and research landscape has been created. Mass grant cancellations, vicious budget cuts, and open political meddling in scientific work have been used in this attack. This has raised alarm amongst scientists and activists that there will be a wholesale dismantling of core research projects. Nearly 800 National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research projects have been cancelled, with over $2.3 billion (about Rs 19,000 crores) in committed funding. The cuts are largely aimed at key grants involving HIV/AIDS (28.7 per cent of cancelled grants), transgender health (24.3 per cent), and COVID-19 research (17.1 per cent), as well as halting some $65 million (about Rs 540 crores) of Alzheimer's disease research at several eponymous Research Centres.

The worst cuts are for NIH centres prioritising minority health and infectious diseases. The research grants mentioning flagged topics – LGBT+ , health, gender identity, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) -- have been marked for killing. There are major cuts in university grants awarded to collaborations with China and climate change projects. The research that studies transgender populations or promotes environmental justice is being systematically dismantled, as according to their criteria these are of no scientific merit or economic value. The National Science Foundation recently sent the budget request, with a 70 per cent cut ! This is a sign that the human effect of this policy shift will be staggering. It is likely that this will lead to reducing the number of PhDs from 41,000 to 5000 and postdoctoral researchers from 5,000 to 1,000.

SELECTIVE TARGETTING

A major force behind this unprecedented ideological crackdown is Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which now exercises control over the NIH’s grant approval process. Musk leaving DOGE will have no real consequences as it is not based on an individual but a premeditated plan. According to sworn testimony from senior NIH officials, DOGE operatives have directly ordered the cancellation of hundreds of projects. Since early May, the agency has reviewed every NIH award before release, a move widely condemned as a blatant act of political interference in the scientific process.

The Trump administration’s appointment of anti-vaccine crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services has further exacerbated this climate of hostility. As the NIH's parent body, HHS is now overseeing the suppression of mRNA vaccine research. More than 40 grants related to vaccine hesitancy are believed to be on the chopping block, as the administration works to dismantle what it deems ideologically unpalatable science.

The purge does not stop with the NIH. Preliminary budget plans for fiscal year 2026 include sweeping reductions in climate and space research. NASA’s science budget faces a near-50 per cent cut. More than a quarter of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) funds will be axed. The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research which is NOAA’s main research arm faces an incredible 74 per cent budget drop. In effect this would shut down cooperative institutes working on weather, climate, and ocean science. Even projects like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a successor to Hubble and James Webb, are in danger of being cancelled. Worse still, there are plans to halt next-generation Earth-observing satellites and strip future weather satellites of climate instruments, thereby cutting NASA’s partnership with NOAA on satellite launches.

Beyond research budgets, the Trump administration has begun directly targeting individual institutions. Columbia University lost $400 million (around Rs 3,300 crores) in federal grants after it was accused of mishandling campus protests related to the Israel-Gaza conflict. Harvard University, a global academic leader with a $53-billion (about Rs 4.4 lakh crores) endowment, has become a central focus of the administration’s campaign to purge campuses of what it calls progressive or anti-racist ideology. The government’s tactics mirror those used elsewhere –widespread termination of grants and contracts, framed as a crackdown on antisemitism (equated to anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian protests) and so-called race-based admissions policies. In April, the administration issued Harvard a list of demands that included federal oversight of its hiring and admissions. When Harvard refused on the grounds of academic freedom, its research grants were immediately frozen.

The financial expense has been staggering. Harvard researchers have forfeited nearly 1,000 grants representing more than $2.4 billion (around Rs 20,000 crores) in funding. The NIH alone has revoked more than 600 grants totalling approximately $2.2 billion (Rs 18,000 crores ), not counting those connected with affiliate hospitals. Additional losses from the NSF and Department of Defense span disciplines as diverse as quantum physics, artificial intelligence, and astrophysics, leaving researchers and students in the lurch.

In an even more aggressive move, the Department of Homeland Security stripped Harvard of its ability to enroll international students – a vital source of both revenue and global talent. The university filed a suit, prompting a temporary judicial freeze. At the same time, the Trump administration has weaponised civil-rights laws such as Title VI and Title IX to police university policies on antisemitism, transgender rights, and DEI initiatives. Federal contracts have been suspended at institutions like the University of Pennsylvania over issues such as the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports.

DEFUNDING PUBLIC EDUCATION

The Trump regime actions add up to far more than a push for academic priorities. They represent a determined attempt to subordinate the university as a central institution of civil society. The goal is not to "reform" higher education so much as to incapacitate it, as part of a broader authoritarian assault on the legal profession, nonprofit sector, and independent media and intelligentsia.

Resistance is growing. A consortium of researchers and 16 state attorneys general have filed suit, requesting that the courts overturn the grant cancellations and stop what one lawsuit calls a "reckless and illegal purge" of research that targets marginalised communities and politically contentious issues. Thousands of scientists and allies have taken to the streets to protest in the US and Europe, chanting "Science saves lives" and "Scientists will not be silenced." These "Stand Up for Science" protests are a response to the Trump administration's mass firings, agency layoffs, and suppression of academic freedom.

Nobel laureate Drew Weissman, an immunologist, captured the dismay of the scientific community when he said, “Never in my life did I think that the government would turn against a field of research for non-scientific reasons.” In the past, grant terminations were exceedingly rare and reserved for instances of fraud or gross negligence – always with a path to corrective action. Now, faced with deliberate hostility from the highest levels of government, more than 75 per cent of scientists polled informally say they are considering leaving the country.

Ultimately, what we are witnessing is not an isolated US phenomenon but part of a global trend. The United States, under Trump, is merely a latecomer to the defunding of public higher education. The United Kingdom under Margaret Thatcher led the charge decades ago. India joined early, with the current NDA government taking the country from the frying pan into the fire. In contrast, countries like Australia, Singapore, Germany, and the Nordic nations have largely held the line, continuing to invest in academic and scientific advancement. China, not coincidentally, has risen in global stature while sustaining robust public funding for its universities and research institutes.

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