Research cancelled: The invisible loss

 

Only a nation of fools gives tax breaks to religion while discouraging science and education.

Ten years ago, I told you Donald Trump is a proven psychopath. (See “Will Our Next President Be A Psychopath?” and “A Psychopath Slipped Into the White House.“). A psychopath is someone who is callous, unemotional, and morally depraved,

Trump scored almost “perfectly” on the Hare Text for Psychopathy. Although this test should be administered by clinical psychologists, the fact that every measure seems to apply to Trump is telling.

The criteria for psychopathy suggest that Trump has no emotional constraints. In short, he does not give a damn about people, and he especially doesn’t give a damn about the very people who support him most, the pitiful MAGAs who unknowingly voted against their own well-being.

The Hare Test for Psychopathy

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. glibness
               2. superficial charm
               3. grandiose sense of self-worth
               4. need for stimulation
               5. proneness to boredom
               6. pathological lying
               7. conning/manipulation
               8. lack of remorse
               9. lack of guilt
               10. Shallow emotions 
               11. callousness
               12. lack of empathy
               13. parasitic lifestyle
               14. promiscuous sexual behavior
               15. early behavior problems
               16. lack of realistic, long-term goals
               17. impulsivity
               18. failure to accept responsibility
               19. many short-term marital relationships
               20. juvenile delinquency and criminal versatility

It is sad that too many Americans either didn’t believe me or didn’t care, because Trumpist America has become much worse than even I imagined.

But being a psychopath may be the least of Trump’s faults. Specifically, he is:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Amoral
            2. Anti-science
            3. Anti-education
            4. Anti-gay
            5. Anti-black, brown, red, and yellow
            6. Pro-authoritarian
            7. Anti-democracy
            8. Un-Christian and anti-non-Christian
            9. Anti-immigrant
            10. Anti-law and justice
            11. Pro-rich and anti-poor
            12. Anti-truth

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In this post, we’ll discuss Trump’s “anti-science” and the real effects on our lives. Science begins with research. Without research, there can be no science, and without science, there can be no human progress. 

Because Trump is completely self-absorbed and is concerned only with immediate effects, he has no comprehension of the importance of research. He acts as though saving federal money today is far more important than saving the future.

Sadly, MAGAs agree, though saving money for a Monetarily Sovereign government has zero value (our Monetarily Sovereign government has infinite dollars), while cutting scientific research is disastrous.

Trump is aware that he is likely to live no more than another decade or two, and he seems largely unconcerned about what will happen after that—except perhaps for his legacy.

This attitude may explain why someone with limited intelligence, who is often dismissive of art, culture, history, and intellectual values, has attached his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (even as he destroys funding from public radio, a primary broadcaster of the performing arts).

It’s an irony of which he appears ignorant.

Additionally, the administration also put Trump’s name on the United States Institute of Peace building in Washington, another federal institution originally established by Congress. It is not known if this was in anticipation of his illegal bombing of Venezuelan boats on the international high seas, without Congressional approval.

While he cuts research because it’s an invisible loss — no one knows or can prove what will be lost — he cuddles up to right-wing, poorly educated, because they have the votes. Trump’s mindless cuts will impact your life, and as he is a psychopath, he doesn’t care.

Trump’s Research Cuts & Cancellations by Subject Area

(Mainly in 2025)

I.  Health & Biomedical Research

1. Health disparities research
2. Alzheimer’s disease in Black and Latino populations
3. Maternal mortality
4. Sickle-cell disease studies
5. HIV/AIDS research (200+ HIV-related grants, including prevention and treatment trials)
6. LGBTQ+ health research
7. Mental health, suicide prevention, and substance-use studies
8. Community-based opioid and alcohol-use interventions
9. Behavioral & social determinants of health
10. Nutrition access, housing instability, stress-related disease
11. CDC surveillance programs
12. Disease-tracking capacity
13. Data publication and advisory committee activity
14. COVID-19 research, long-COVID studies defunded or paused
15. Vaccine-effectiveness follow-ups canceled
16. Cancer-incidence studies
17. Respiratory-disease monitoring
18. Neurological effects of toxic exposure

II. Climate & Environmental Science

1. Climate Assessment (6th National Climate Assessment is mandated by law, making this especially controversial).
2. Funding for the assessment was eliminated
3. Website temporarily removed
4. Research coordination halted
5. EPA & NOAA Research
6. Climate-modeling programs scaled back
7. Air-quality and pollution-impact studies defunded
8. Environmental justice research eliminated
9. Sea-level-rise modeling and coastal-resilience projects paused

III. Social Science & Education Research
NSF — Social, Behavioral, Economic Sciences, 400+ grants frozen or canceled, including:

1. Misinformation and disinformation research
2. Voting behavior and democratic resilience
3. Online extremism studies
4. Social media impact on youth mental health
5. STEM-education equity research–Universities reported dozens of active grants terminated mid-project
6. Education Research — Department of Education:
   • Longitudinal student-outcome studies
   • Special-education effectiveness research
   • Teacher-training program evaluations

IV. Global Health & International Research

1. USAID & Global Trials
2. Malaria Vaccine Development Program — Clinical trials halted, Field sites shut down
3. HIV prevention research abroad
4. PEPFAR-linked (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) research was disrupted
5. Maternal health and nutrition trials
6. Africa and Southeast Asia projects frozen

V. Basic Science & High-Risk Research
(NIH & NSF) Cuts to:

1. High-risk / high-reward exploratory grants
2. Early-career investigator programs
3. Interdisciplinary research initiatives

VI. Institutional & Structural Research Impacts
(University Research Systems). Federal funding freezes at:

1. Harvard
2. University of Maryland
3. University of Arizona
4. Labs shut down mid-experiment
5. Graduate students and postdocs laid of
6. Tens to hundreds of millions in frozen funding per institution
7. Cuts disproportionately targeted research that is:
   • Population-based rather than molecular
   • Preventive rather than curative
   • Climate- or environment-related
   • Social, behavioral, or systemic
   • International or cooperative
   • Equity-focused or demographic-specific

VII. Basic Science & High-Risk Research — 
Reductions in High-Risk / High-Reward Studies

1. NIH “high-risk, high-reward” grants decreased from 406 in 2024 to 364 in 2025 due to shifts in NIH funding priorities and changing award patterns. These grants aim to support innovative, potentially groundbreaking research rather than incremental studies.
2. Fewer cancer, Alzheimer’s, and HIV research projects are being funded
3. NASA: Proposed cuts of roughly 24% overall, with science programs facing nearly 50% reductions and the cancellation of major missions, jeopardizing U.S. leadership in space science.
4. Fewer grants for exploratory, foundational science are being issued. Because such “blue sky” work often lacks immediate commercial payoff, private sources rarely fill the gap. Consequently, cutting these awards effectively ends many programs.
5. Less diversity in the range of scientific questions supported.
6. Cuts to Early-Career and Training Funding: The NIH awarded 896 fewer new early-career grants (for undergraduates, PhD students, and postdoctoral researchers) in the first nine months of 2025 compared to the previous period. This represents a significant reduction in support for the next generation of researchers.
7. The number of NIH transition grants awarded to postdoctoral researchers decreased by 172 during the same period, representing a reduction of about 10%. This decline is significant because early-career and training awards are crucial for nurturing new scientific talent, supporting innovative ideas, and strengthening the future research workforce. Reducing these grants not only withdraws funding from individual laboratories but also creates structural barriers to entering scientific careers.
8. Department of Health & Human Services: A structural overhaul of HHS that would merge agencies into a newly created Administration for a Healthy America, while seeking to reduce the workforce by tens of thousands and divert programs.

The official excuse given for all these harmful cuts is to “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.” This lie should be obvious to anyone who favors democracy over authoritarianism. 

Among the earliest of the dismissals, Trump fired at least 17 inspectors general from across federal agencies just days into his second term. 

These independent watchdogs oversee waste, fraud, and abuse. Under the Inspector General Act of 1978, which former President Jimmy Carter signed into law following the Watergate scandal, the President is required to notify Congress at least 30 days before dismissing an inspector general with “substantive, case-specific” reasons for removing them.

The last thing Trump cares about is federal waste, fraud, and abuse. He cares solely about Trump. So he fires inspectors who could impede his personal aspirations.

Case in point:

“A Treasury Inspector General report found that 11,443 IRS workers either received probationary termination notices or voluntarily accepted separation programs in early 2025 — about 11% of the agency’s total workforce at that point.”

It seems Trump and his affluent associates prefer a limited IRS workforce to avoid uncovering any potential tax evasion that might have been managed by their high-powered accountants.

Overall, Trump’s cuts follow this pattern: 

1. Target science, research, and public health agencies
2. Reduce oversight and watchdog functions
3. Shrink the education, cultural, and civic support
4. Undermine preparedness and emergency response

In summary, Trump has cut research and science agencies, public health, regulatory enforcement, independent oversight bodies, climate research, NIH, NSF, CDC, education federal offices, and many social programs. 

True to his dictatorial tendencies, he has strengthened national security, increased military power, and fostered anti-immigration sentiments, including those law enforcement actions that fail to address his family’s illegal activities while imprisoning the rest of us.

Thus, Trump and his MAGA base are turning America into a police state of ignorance, where no one has the power or even the understanding to oppose him. Unfortunately, research doesn’t vote, but a lack of research votes against the future.

 

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty

Twitter: @rodgermitchell

Search #monetarysovereignty

Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell;

MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell;

https://www.academia.edu/

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A Government’s Sole Purpose is to Improve and Protect The People’s Lives.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY