Brain drain
Gutting science and schools
Cancelled research, scientists pushed out, and an Education Department being taken apart without Congress voting to close it.
Federal records show 5,844 NIH grants and 1,996 National Science Foundation grants were cancelled or suspended. Courts have reversed many of them, but far fewer new grants are going out.
More than 25,000 people left federal science agencies, many of them early-career researchers. Young scientists are leaving the field or moving abroad.
Political appointees over grant decisions
A proposed White House rule would give political appointees the final say on federal research grants, a step scientists say puts politics ahead of peer review.
The Education Department went from about 4,200 employees in 2024 to 2,300 in 2026. It spent up to $38 million paying laid-off staff not to work. One employee called the result "not efficiency, this is chaos."
Special ed and civil rights moved out
Oversight of special education is going to HHS, and civil rights enforcement in schools to the Justice Department. At least 148 Education Department programs are being moved to six other agencies.
This land is your land
Giving away public lands
Moves to sell off public land, open protected forests to logging and roads, and hand part of Yosemite to a private developer, while gutting the staff who care for our parks.
Opening untouched forests to logging
The administration is repealing the Roadless Rule, which has protected about 44 million acres of national forest from road building and most logging and mining since 2001.
Part of Yosemite for a private developer
The administration is considering a deal that would give part of Yosemite National Park to a Nevada-based developer who wants a private road into the park.
A push to sell millions of acres
Republicans tried to put sales of millions of acres of Western public land into his 2025 "big, beautiful bill." It was dropped at the last minute, but supporters vowed to bring it back.
The Park Service has lost about a quarter of its staff, and thousands of Forest Service workers were fired in early 2025.
America alone
Driving our allies away
Tariff threats against friends, demands to take Greenland, and a global reputation in free fall. Allies are now planning for a future that relies less on the U.S.
Pew's 2026 global survey found confidence in him fell in 16 of 24 countries with trend data and rose in none. Majorities in all 10 European countries surveyed lack confidence in him, and fewer people now call the U.S. a reliable partner.
Tariffs on NATO allies over Greenland
He announced tariffs on eight European allies, including the UK, Germany, and France, for opposing U.S. control of Greenland, then backed down. European officials say the transatlantic relationship has been "changed forever."
Allies turn to European weapons
About 90% of the weapons in Germany's 2025–26 procurement plan are set to come from Europe, and trust in America is at a generational low. Canada and other NATO members have reconsidered buying U.S. F-35 fighter jets.
Ambushing Ukraine's president
He and JD Vance berated Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in front of the cameras, a scene with no precedent at the White House.