A-Infos (en) Italy, UCADI #197 - Research, Trump effect (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Before considering what is happening in the American academic 
environment, it is useful to briefly recall the state of the 
organization of public research at a global level, for a correct 
positioning of the phenomenon. ---- This world has changed a lot 
compared to thirty years ago: basic research is funded less and less: 
there is an obligation to obtain visible results in the shortest 
possible time. In this short-sighted utilitarian race, Europe is one 
step ahead of the USA, where (before the advent of Trump 2.0) it was 
relatively easy to obtain small and medium funding, thanks to federal 
agencies such as the NSF or the NIH. In the EU, however, with few 
exceptions, it is often necessary to go through the preparation of 
mega-projects that must promise the Moon, which require a long time to 
be assembled and which are rarely approved both due to the limited funds 
available and the non-transparent management of the evaluation methods.
With the advent of Trump, this scenario is changing, not so much because 
of a change of heart in the EU, but "thanks" to both the cuts made in 
the USA (essentially ideological and political cuts) and the change in 
climate in the academic environment.
On the one hand, we are witnessing significant reductions in funding for 
studies on climate science, immunology, social sciences (particularly 
migration), infectious diseases, gender studies. An operation vaguely 
similar to the ideological one that was made in the Soviet Union, 
forcing biology research to align itself with Lysenko's ravings that 
caused the USSR to set back many years in that sector. In the current 
context, the unfortunate decision does not consist so much in the 
imposition of a wrong line of research, but in the ban on working in 
relevant sectors, even if it remains to be seen how much they really 
want to persist with all the cuts currently planned; for example, I 
don't think the US wants to cut itself off from the infectious disease 
sector, an area in which they do classified research, presumably linked 
to the preparation of biological warfare such as the work done at the 
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (directed until 
2022 by Anthony Fauci, who has something interesting to tell us about 
COVID - Jeffrey Sachs, who chaired a parliamentary commission tasked 
with shedding light on the origins of the virus, was unable to obtain 
information on the matter). A second type of cuts, decidedly more 
disturbing, is political, disguised as a fight against anti-Semitism. 
Federal funding for some universities, including the famous Ivy League 
ones, has been reduced (the most striking case being Columbia University 
- CUNY - which suffered a cut of 400 million), claiming that these 
institutions sponsor anti-Semitic movements. Not surprisingly, CUNY 
responded immediately, announcing measures to align itself with Herr 
Trump's "desiderata," proposing, for example, changes to some curricula 
(cutting hot topics). Much more worrying is that at CUNY itself, 
Professor Catherine Franklin was fired, after 25 years of teaching, for 
openly criticizing Israel's policies and in particular the methods used 
by the IDF in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians (wasn't the USA, the 
nation of "free speech"?).
But the examples of self-censorship (and what self-censorship) don't 
stop there. Another striking example comes from Yale (another Ivy League 
university, the second oldest after Harvard).
Background: Ben Gvir, Israel's national security minister and at the 
same time convicted in his homeland for inciting hatred and a supporter 
of a movement defined as terrorist even in Israel, was recently invited 
to the US to hold a series of conferences, from Mar-a-lago to a seminar 
at Yale at a private association. To refresh your memory on the 
character: Ben Gvir, recently released a statement in which he called on 
the Israeli army to bomb food and humanitarian aid warehouses in Gaza.
Result of the visit: about 200 Yale students protest the racist's visit, 
and in response, the Yale administration decides to ban the 
Yaleis4Palestine movement for inciting anti-Semitic hatred.
Established facts: (i) there is no evidence that Yaleis4Palestine 
participated in the spontaneous demonstration; (ii) there is a video 
where students are seen, in a circle, simply shouting (without touching) 
at a certain Netaniel Crispe, who demands to pass through the middle to 
shorten his path; (iii) in another video, Orthodox Jews can be 
recognized in the group of those protesting; (iv) Netaniel Crispe 
appears to be a regular or almost regular guest on talk shows broadcast 
by Fox News.
Are these nothing more than dress rehearsals for Nazi-fascism? If you 
are still not convinced, let us remember that recently there have been 
cases of Green Card holders (a document that allows a foreign worker to 
permanently and legally reside in the USA) who have been expelled from 
the country, without it being known which police department or similar 
carried out the expulsion. It should therefore not be surprising that 
many university students and post-docs of various nationalities 
(including Slovenians, Belgians, Portuguese, French, Austrians, 
Mexicans, Chinese and Irish) often give up visiting their families for 
fear of not being able to re-enter the USA upon their return. The 
phenomenon also concerns established professors, spouses of Americans, 
but without an American passport, who do not feel safe in temporarily 
leaving the USA. The feeling of stress extends to Americans as well: 548 
out of 690 PhD students interviewed by the journal Nature said they are 
considering leaving the US after completing their PhD. Although this 
number should not be taken as an accurate estimate of the discomfort, it 
does indicate the strong malaise present in the university student 
population. The desire to escape extends to academics. In fact, we are 
witnessing the development of programs by various European research 
institutions for the hiring of US personnel. Among others, the 
University of Marseille, the VUB in Brussels; the set of universities in 
Berlin; Spain as a nation and Catalonia with a specific program; the 
Pasteur Institute in Paris and the entire Max-Planck Society in Germany. 
But the phenomenon does not only concern Europe: Australia is preparing 
special programs, not to mention Canada which remains the most 
attractive destination for obvious reasons. It is not clear whether and 
to what extent these initiatives will be successful, given the scarce 
resources that are actually available in the Western world for research 
and the mad desire of governments to spend only on weapons; there 
remains evidence of a change that could be epochal.
To complete the picture of the dark times we are living in, let's add 
the cuts imposed by the new DOGE department that affect (among others) a 
little-known federal agency that supports public libraries. Without 
warning, a dozen fundings were canceled and as a consequence, three 
states, California, Connecticut and Washington, found themselves without 
funds for their state libraries.
It is difficult to find a rational explanation for all that is 
happening, even from the point of view of the interests of the American 
empire. The bulk of American students in scientific subjects are 
oriented towards finance, much more lucrative than jobs in manufacturing 
industries or, worse, in research centers.
The phantom reindustrialization desired by Trump is not only unlikely 
due to the higher wages of US workers compared to Chinese, not only due 
to the lack of efficient infrastructure, but also due to the lack of 
qualified personnel.

Antonio Politi

https://www.ucadi.org/2025/05/25/ricerca-effetto-trump/
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