Dear Friend,
Science is under attack. In just its first month, the Trump Administration and Elon Musk’s extragovernmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have recklessly — likely illegally — terminated thousands of federal employees. Despite ongoing legal challenges, the executive branch’s directives have derailed vital research and programming here and abroad, crippling scientific advancement and causing incalculable, if not irreparable, damage to millions of lives.
As an organization that’s committed to developing evidence-based solutions using rigor, the scientific method, and critical thinking, American Atheists refuses to comply with this administration’s unlawful, unscientific, and un-American assault on freethought.
The architects of Project 2025 desire a system in which research, if it occurs at all, is dictated by unqualified partisan appointees. The result of such a system is not science; it’s propaganda. Because when you mix science and politics, you’re going to get politics.
Just as Project 2025 prescribed “deleting” terms, the empowered White Christian nationalists have circulated lists of forbidden words, including activism, climate change, pollution, women, disability, Black, socioeconomic, etc. Researchers have warned Trump’s edicts not only censor scientists but compel them to “deny realities grounded in science.” Even so, fearing the consequences of noncompliance, federal agencies have scrambled to suspend grants, eliminate programs, and remove public datasets, research papers, and other resources from their webpages.
The speed and scale of the disruption has been stunning. Only hours after Trump’s swearing-in, he pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization, with which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were ordered to cease communication. One week in, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) initiated a federal funding freeze on all grants and loans in order to ensure recipients are “aligned” and issued a memo targeting “foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
Although the OMB freeze is pending the outcome of multiple lawsuits, the confusion and chaos it sparked has already ground scientific advancement to a halt — everything from environmental science to health and biomedical research — at a time when we are hurtling toward climate tipping points and another pandemic.
The dismantling of USAID, for example, abruptly ended dozens of clinical trials overseas, endangering the lives and well-being of thousands of individuals who volunteered to receive experimental treatments. It’s been estimated that during a 90-day freeze, more than 100,000 babies will be born with HIV and, each week, one million women and girls will be denied access to contraception.
Back here in the States, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) suspended grant review panels and defunded vital programs. At Veterans Affairs (VA), Trump’s hiring freeze disrupted research in mental health, substance withdrawal, cancer treatments, and more. Billions of dollars are also at stake at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), where farmers are awaiting reimbursement for their participation in conservation programs.
Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, ordered her department, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to immediately “eliminate all climate change activities and the use of climate change terminology.” Meanwhile, only a month after Los Angeles was devastated by wildfires, prevention programs have been stymied and billions of gallons of irrigation water laid waste on Trump’s orders. And DOGE has already gained access at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which Project 2025 proposed dismantling and privatizing.
Trump has also called for the investigation and defunding of non-governmental organizations that receive federal funds and fail to comply with his mandates. Earlier this month, an NIH policy was announced that will slash billions of dollars in funding each year for U.S. universities, hospitals, and other research institutions. Like the federal agencies, many are rushing to fall in line.
The swift retreat of these institutions has been discouraging, but unions and grassroots organizers are starting to assemble some resistance. News organizations and digital archivists acted quickly to preserve public datasets. On March 7, a nationwide “Stand Up for Science” protest is being planned, and the Union of Concerned Scientists is circulating an open letter to Congress condemning the administration’s recent actions.
Our collective descent into a new Dark Age is no longer merely theoretical. There are real, life-and-death consequences to this assault on reason, and they will not be confined to those who “voted for it.” Extreme weather, infectious diseases, and harmful religion-driven public policies affect us all.
Time and again, this administration has vilified the education system, the free press, and science. Authoritarians fear freethought because it is, by nature, uncontrollable. It spurs progress, rejects dogma, and inspires dissent.
As Thomas Paine wrote, “The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”
Try as they might, this presidency cannot simply delete facts, erase knowledge, and rewrite reality — at least, not so long as there are still individuals like you and organizations like ours unafraid to defy them. So, today, please stand with us, and stand for science.
In solidarity,
Nick Fish
President
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