Trump dismisses the US National Science Council, which was preparing a report on China’s growing scientific superiority

The termination was carried out through an email in which they were informed that, “in the name of the president”their positions remained “terminated with immediate effect”.

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According to the newspaper El País, the Council was about to publish a critical report on the Science and Engineering Indicators of 2026. The document analyzes the country’s research and development spending and compares it with other nations. As explained to the aforementioned media by former members of the council, the report warned about the growing gap in this field between the US, whose investment is falling, and China, which continues to advance.

One of the Republican leader’s greatest obsessions is to demonstrate American superiority over China, which explains measures such as the million-dollar drive to try to surpass the Asian giant in artificial intelligence, quantum computing or the plans to return to the Moon.

Yet beyond those strategic sectors, much of the nation’s scientific research is taking a hit from the government, which has sought to implement some of the harshest cuts to science since World War II.

Precisely, one of the entities most affected by Trump is the National Science Foundation (NSF), of which the dismissed Council acts as an advisory body. The members of the National Science Council, which was dismissed on Friday, are appointed by the president and serve staggered six-year terms, which avoids a total renewal of the organization.

Its history is extensive: both bodies were created by Congress in 1950—and, in fact, only Congress can officially dissolve them—and have been considered a guarantee of independence, regardless of who governs. They were established to advance science “in peacetime” after the Second World War, and have contributed to the development of key advances. Throughout its history, the NSF has supported research that has led to more than 270 Nobel Prizes, in addition to fundamental innovations such as magnetic resonance imaging, artificial intelligence, and gene editing, among others.

One study estimates that about one fifth part of the wealth of the United States is due to the public investment in research, an area in which the country has traditionally been a world leader. However, other analyzes indicate that China could surpass it in just two years, even within Trump’s current mandate.

Since Trump came to power, the agency has lost around 30% of its staff. For the second consecutive year, the Government seeks to reduce its budget, of about 9,000 million dollars, by half.

The National Science Council is the collegiate body in charge of governing the NSF and preparing its budgets. Some of the ousted members now wonder if they were removed precisely to take away that power.

“I think this is another sign of the profound changes the administration has in mind for the NSF.“, stated Yolanda Gil, one of the dismissed councilors, to the Spanish media.

The White House has nominated Jim O’Neill as director of the NSF, who, unlike his predecessors with a background in research, has primarily experience in finance and investments.