{"id":14359,"date":"2026-09-08T16:48:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T20:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=14359"},"modified":"2026-09-08T12:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:00:10","slug":"trumps-dangerous-gold-standard-for-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2026\/09\/08\/trumps-dangerous-gold-standard-for-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Dangerous \u201cGold Standard\u201d for Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

U<\/span>nder threat: scientists\u2019 independence to do research and tell the truth; public health science; and science at universities<\/em><\/p>\n

Likely outcome: the construction of huge AI data centers across the U.S. spewing greenhouse gases and other pollutants<\/em><\/p>\n

BUT: don\u2019t worry, be happy because AI will solve these problems<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As World War II drew to an end, Vannevar Bush, once dean of the MIT School of Engineering and then head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, wrote a letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt transmitting a report entitled \u201cScience, the endless frontier.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Roosevelt responded:<\/p>\n

New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered with the same vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war we can create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more fruitful life.<\/p>\n

The report led to the founding of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which provides funding for scientific research and education. It had a FY 2024 budget of $9.04 billion.<\/p>\n

Not So Golden<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Right before the nation\u2019s official celebration of its 250th<\/sup> anniversary, President Trump received a report entitled Science, A New Golden Age<\/a> written by Michael Kratsios, Trump\u2019s director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Kratsios is not a scientist; he holds a BA in political science and once worked for Trump right-wing billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel. The report was designed to look like the Bush report down to the font on the title page.<\/p>\n

Trump responded:<\/p>\n

During my first term, we made unprecedented advances in America\u2019s scientific and technological leadership. We launched the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative, vaulting the United States to the front of the pack in the development and deployment of artificial intelligence. \u2026 Now, after four long years of weakness and complacency, we must set our sights even higher. I am calling upon you to blaze a trail to the next frontiers of science. We have the opportunity to cement America\u2019s global technological leadership and usher in the Golden Age of American Innovation. We are not just competing with other nations; we are seeking, striving, fighting to make America greater than ever before.<\/p>\n

Cynics might associate this paragraph with Trump\u2019s ongoing commentary regarding convictions about his own brilliance. The CEOs who have invested hundreds of billions of dollars on AI development might have a bone or two to pick with the credit he takes for their accomplishments. But few were prepared for the launch of gold standard science although it is cutting ruthless paths through the many agencies that depend on science.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s claims about the government\u2019s contribution to the development of AI are based on the \u201cGenesis Mission,\u201d established by his Executive Order 14363<\/a>. The EO intends to begin a \u201crace\u201d with the rest of the world to develop \u201cglobal technology dominance in the development of AI.\u201d The Genesis Mission will build an \u201cintegrated AI platform to harness Federal scientific datasets\u201d and is housed in the Department of Energy (DOE). While the Genesis Mission talks big about feeding government data into an AI platform, attacks on government scientists are likely to slow the that work way down.<\/p>\n

That agency is led by Chris Wright, an American businessman who has an undergraduate and Masters degree in engineering but spent his career before joining government managing fracking companies that extract shale oil. Wright\u2019s major government accomplishments so far are the rollback of climate change mitigation initiatives and avid promotion of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

The gold standard program is defined by executive order (EO) 14303<\/a>, the Kratsios report<\/a>, and a memorandum to agency heads<\/a> from Kratsios and Russell Vought. Vought is the head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and is considered one of the two most powerful Trump policy-making aides in the White House (the other being Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff in charge of immigration policy). The three documents are intended to accomplish the supervision of government science by senior political appointees with the power to \u201ccorrect\u201d science that does not mesh with President Trump\u2019s political agenda.<\/p>\n

As important, the gold standard will redirect government science to focus on the development of AI, quantum information science, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, nuclear fission and fusion, and space systems. Kratsios and Vought say that the foundational research to support these priorities depend on the physical sciences and engineering but that these subjects have declined as a share of the federal research portfolio.<\/p>\n

Public health research and practice, including disease prevention and treatment, would be deemphasized. Once the government has developed the best AI in the world<\/a>, it could be used to identify the root causes of chronic diseases, according to the Administration. Accelerate drug discovery, and develop longer-lasting building materials.<\/p>\n

The Kratsios\/Vought memo instructs each agency to develop its own plan to implement the gold standard as part of the preparation of its FY 2028 budget submitted to OMB for approval. The funding<\/p>\n

The Bad News<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Within eleven days of the EO\u2019s appearance, Trump received a letter<\/a> signed by over 6,000 scientists, academics, physicians, and researchers condemning the gold standard as an existential threat to scientific independence:<\/p>\n

The administration is slashing funding for scientific agencies, terminating grants to scientists, defunding their laboratories, and hampering international scientific collaboration. \u2026 The administration\u2019s current investigations of more than 50 universities send a chilling message. \u2026The quest for truth\u2014the mission of science\u2014requires that scientists freely explore new questions and report their findings honestly, independent of special interests.<\/p>\n

And, in a widely circulated op ed entitled \u201cFool\u2019s Gold<\/a>\u201d published in Science<\/em> magazine, David Michaels, assistant secretary for OSHA under President Obama and now a professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, and Wendy Wagner, a professor at the University of Texas Law School, regarded as a leading expert on the interaction of science and law, wrote:<\/p>\n

Political apparatchiks are now granted broad license to manufacture uncertainty and confusion, cherry-pick studies that support their policy needs, and discard those that provide inconvenient results.<\/p>\n

Michaels and Wagner noted the irony of the Trump administration claiming that it would save science when it had become notorious for embracing stunningly bad science.<\/p>\n

Their first example was the misrepresentation of climate science<\/a> by EPA administrator Lee Zeldin who issued a press release<\/a> announcing the launch of the \u201cbiggest deregulatory action in U.S. history\u201d on March 12, 2025:<\/p>\n

Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more.<\/p>\n

Their second were the claims by Trump<\/a> and Health and Human Services secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.<\/a> that many childhood vaccines are unsafe.<\/p>\n

This mangling of established science, repeated over and over again, resulted in the resignation of the top vaccine official<\/a> at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Explaining his resignation, Dr. Peter Marks wrote: \u201cIt has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, failure to vaccinate children led to the first serious outbreak of measles since the country declared the illness eliminated in 2000.<\/p>\n

Shock and Awe<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As is typical when the Trump White House\u2019s implements a fanfare initiative, Kratsios and OMB director Russell Vought began the golden age with some serious shock and awe.<\/p>\n

To start, the Trump White House fired the 22 members<\/a> of the NSF\u2019s governing body. The administration proposed to cut<\/a> the NSF budget by 57% and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget by 41%. So far, Congress has resisted these budget demands.<\/p>\n

The White House has successfully pushed scientists and researchers out of government. The Partnership for Public Service estimates that 95,000 employees were laid off at science-dependent agencies throughout the government. The firings were accompanied by drastic cuts in federal funding for scientific research grants. For example, five years after the COVID 19 pandemic, contract funding at the Centers for Disease Control dropped by 79%.<\/p>\n

At EPA, administrator Zeldin is managing a program to harass 1,500 biologists, chemists, toxicologists, risk assessors, and other experts<\/a> into retiring, being laid off, or moving to jobs that have little to do with their expertise. One scientist, a doctor and pulmonologist, was reassigned to a finance office. An epidemiologist was transferred to a job issuing permits for the disposal of hazardous waste. As of April 2026, according to reporting in the New York Times<\/em>, only 124 researchers remain. The science office that was the target of this blitzkrieg<\/em> operated the world\u2019s only laboratory specializing in studies of human health effects after exposure to vehicle exhaust, wildfire smoke, ozone, and other priority pollutants. That work is gone or on life support.<\/p>\n

The ongoing Trump administration \u201cinvestigations\u201d of elite universities are supercharged by the gold standard. The White House has instructed political appointees<\/a> to do everything they can to channel money to individual researchers and private businesses willing to distance themselves from academic institutions.<\/p>\n

The administration has also taken aim at foreign students<\/a>, imposing bans on travel from certain countries, limiting visas, and erecting a series of procedural obstacles to deter them from coming to America. Because foreign students typically pay the full tuition set by universities while American applicants are subsidized by scholarships and loans, discouraging the enrollment of students from abroad is a significant financial hardship.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this sad story has been lost in the shuffle of commentary on a troubled economy, the midterms, and the war with Iran.<\/p>\n

Bottom<\/strong> Line<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What does it all mean? A single example shows how fast the gold standard is threatening the future.<\/p>\n

According to Gallup<\/a>, seven in ten Americans oppose constructing AI data centers in their local area; nearly half (48%) are strongly opposed and barely a quarter favor such products. The centers are usually huge, require extensive electricity to operate, and need lots of water to cool their equipment. The Trump administration\u2019s energy policies welcome the use of fossil fuels and it typically encourages data center developers to build their own power plants rather than plug into the grid. In supposedly dark red Texas, the plants are skating past the environmental assessments required for existing fossil fuel-powered plants that serve the public.<\/p>\n

A developer of one such center<\/a> under construction for Meta near El Paso, Texas applied to Texas regulators to construct a gas-burning power plant large enough to support 300,000 homes. Texas environmental regulators signed off on the application in 20 days. Annually, the plant will release 33 million tons of carbon dioxide, a harmful greenhouse gas, making it the dirtiest plant for the climate<\/a> in the country.<\/p>\n

Seven of the largest companies in the world are engaged in fantastically expensive competition to dominate the development of AI. The gold standard tucks the research priorities of the government and its unrivaled power to foster this competition into the back pockets of huge corporations betting on AI\u2019s success. In this context, like Trump\u2019s office, all that glitters is gold, controlled by a few at the likely expense of the many.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under threat: scientists\u2019 independence to do research and tell the truth; public health science; and science at universities Likely outcome: the construction of huge AI data centers across the U.S. spewing greenhouse gases and other pollutants BUT: don\u2019t worry, be happy because AI will solve these problems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":14364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-i-and-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s Dangerous \u201cGold Standard\u201d for Science - Confined Space<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trump's "Gold Standard" threatens scientists\u2019 independence to do research and tell the truth; 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