Today, my colleagues and I published a new report, Science and Democracy Under Siege: Documenting Six Months of the Trump Administration’s Destructive Actions. Our analysis attempts to capture the immense chaos and damage of President Trump’s second term, characterized by destruction of democratic processes, divisive and vindictive actions, and immeasurable losses in scientific expertise and investments in the federal government, thanks in large part to the ongoing wreckage carried out by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Acting with illegal overreach of executive power, President Trump has demonized diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and environmental justice; pushed widespread rollbacks of our nation’s environmental and public health protections; attacked universities where cutting edge research occurs; and threatened civil society organizations and the press, among much more. And strikingly, the administration issued a misleading and insidious executive order that dismantles federal agency scientific integrity policies and purports to promote “transparency” and “reproducibility” that will actually undermine science in favor of political ideology in government decisionmaking.
The Trump administration is operating as an authoritarian regime. And fundamental to the scheme: cutting out science and scientists that challenge their agenda. By ignoring high-quality evidence and facts, the administration attempts to position itself as the arbiter of truth and reality. Our analysis found that between January 20 and June 30 of this year, the Trump administration has carried out a confirmed 402 attacks on science—instances where science has been sidelined or threatened by the federal government. To put that in perspective, during the full four years of President Trump’s first term—which was wrought with efforts to silence science—we documented 207 attacks on science. UCS has updated its methodology to capture the increased ferocity of the administration’s attacks on science. While the numbers of attacks from President Trump’s first and current term cannot be directly compared, the methodology captures a more comprehensive picture of the administration’s actions to dismantle federal science.
While it is hard to wrap one’s mind around the sheer scale of destruction, UCS’ report details five key ways in which the administration has systematically and recklessly destroyed federal scientific systems:
- slashing the federal workforce, including pushing out experts in federal agency leadership;
- wiping out funding for critical scientific research within and outside the government;
- cutting scientists and the public out of government decisionmaking processes;
- vacating and silencing independent advisory committees; and
- spreading disinformation, distorting scientific information, and halting government data collection.
Our report is full of data and examples of how these actions are harming real people. And I would like to zoom in on just one: how the administration is bypassing public participation processes to benefit corporate polluters.
Free pass to pollute
In March, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that corporations subject to certain Clean Air Act regulations could request a “Presidential Exemption” from air pollution controls for up to two years. The announcement simply stated that companies could send an email to request an exemption—with the decision ultimately in the hands of President Trump himself. This is a permission slip to pollute in defiance of the law and basic justice.
The exemption applies to nine air pollution regulations, including ones that regulate power plants that emit mercury, an extremely hazardous toxicant that can cause lifelong neurological impairments, particularly when exposures are in utero, to babies, and to children. It also applies to facilities that emit ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing gas used in chemical manufacturing and medical device sterilization. For years, UCS has advocated alongside our grassroots partners for stronger controls on mercury, ethylene oxide, and other toxic air pollutants. In recent years, EPA issued more protective regulations that reflect the clear scientific evidence of harm and the disproportionate impacts to marginalized communities.
Allowing polluting industries to ignore Clean Air Act regulations, based on the President’s unilateral say-so, is by our measure a flagrant and unprecedented abuse of power. It ignores the tens of thousands of public comments (including from scientists, impacted communities, and public health advocates) and countless hours of federal employee time and resources that went into developing and finalizing regulations that are designed to keep us safe. The administration has not offered any additional information about these exemptions, nor given the public an opportunity to weigh in, even as EPA moves to eliminate or weaken these regulations altogether.
Clean Air Act exemptions will harm kids and marginalized communities
To help illustrate the consequences of this action, UCS looked at the communities that will be affected by these exemptions, if granted. More than 530 facilities across the United States are eligible for these compliance exemptions, and more than 60 have already received these unfair accommodations. We found that unregulated toxic air pollution from the eligible facilities may disproportionately harm children in marginalized communities, and communities that are disproportionately burdened by toxic air pollutants. We found that 90% of these facilities are within 5 miles of a school or day care, presenting potential risk to children, who are more susceptible to the harms of air toxics exposure. More than 70% of these facilities are located within 5 miles of communities with higher populations of color, lower income populations, or communities with less English spoken than their surrounding counties, states, and the US. And as is so often and unfortunately the case, roughly 60% of these facilities are in the communities already most affected by toxic air pollution. Allowing these facilities to evade pollution regulations compounds health harms that already exist in predominantly lower-income and in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities nationwide.
This is just one of countless examples documented in our report illustrating that the unlawful actions by the Trump administration are not only inhumane, but ignore the best available science and lived experience of communities overburdened by toxic air pollution. The Trump administration’s actions clearly and knowingly sacrifice the health of communities in favor of billionaires and corporations. All these actions benefit a small number of powerful interests, while directly harming the US public—especially low-income, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities—and undermining the economy. The Trump administration is not “making America great.” It is widening health and economic disparities, eroding trust in science, and butchering the systems that help regular people advocate for themselves and hold their leaders accountable.
Our report urges lawmakers to support legislation to sponsor and champion policies that enshrine and protect the use of science in decisionmaking and for the public good. This includes supporting the Scientific Integrity Act, the EXPERTS Act (formerly known as the Stop Corporate Capture Act), and the Whistleblower Protection Act. The US public needs accountability now for the Trump administration’s siege of our nation’s scientific and democratic infrastructure. You can read the full report here.