Six weeks ago, I wrote about how the Trump administration attacks on science and universities are following the authoritarian playbook. I explained why autocracies target science and universities and mapped 35 of the administration’s actions between 20th January and 8th March 2025 to three authoritarian domains:

Control of science to align with state ideology;

Undermining the independence of universities / suppressing dissent;

Maintaining geopolitical / economic goals

I also wrote about what comes next and warning signs to watch out for. Because the administration was acting with such speed and it had only been six weeks since inauguration we didn’t know how far they intended to go.

We are now almost 100 days in and almost all the warning signs are happening. Key parts of US science are toppling. Since 8 March 2025, I’ve mapped another 51 actions attacking science and universities. All actions are available here (worksheet “Science Venn Diagram”) and a high resolution PDF of the Venn Diagram is here.


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