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With the upcoming November US presidential election, this talk will focus on Trump’s possible return to the White House and Republican control of one or both houses of congress and what that might mean for the vitality and future America’s higher education system, as well as US science capabilities. 

Trump and his followers cling to an isolationist, ‘America first’ foreign policy. In this agenda, and in a plot to consolidate unprecedented powers in the presidency, lies an existential threat to universities and civil society. The precipice scenario: plans to end the current federal accreditation system, proposals for huge cuts in academic science funding, plans to reclassify and fire or mute thousands of federal civil service professionals and scientists with expertise in areas such as climate change, replacement of the leadership of various federal agencies with Trump adherents who refuse to enforce federal laws and policies related to the environment and regulation of industry, restricting access to federally collected scientific data, and simply not appointing individuals to key government positions. 

Visa restrictions, deportations and other moves to limit academic talent mobility and international science collaborations rationalized by exaggerated national security concerns seems also a real threat. Then there is Trump’s politics of personal retribution. Trump has made it clear: with new assumed powers he will go after his real and imagined enemies. 

One can conclude this would include his vocal critics in academia and the science community more generally.  In short, Trump returning to the presidency could be cataclysmic for universities, for academic freedom and for global science networks.