McMahon: University Research Must Be “in Sync” With Trump Goals to Keep Funding

Universities should ensure that their research output is “in sync” with Trump administration goals in order to keep their federal funding, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said on Wednesday, as scientists across the U.S. warn of dire consequences brought by the administration’s massive cuts.

“Universities should continue to be able to do research as long as they’re abiding by the laws and are in sync, I think, with the administration and what the administration is trying to accomplish,” McMahon said in an interview on CNBC.

This represents a complete reversal of the process of scientific or other research inquiry, as McMahon is essentially implying that researchers must determine the outcome of their studies before analyzing the actual evidence.

McMahon’s statement lays bare the true reasoning behind the sweeping cuts to scientific research in the U.S. led by Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” — effectively saying that the thousands of now-terminated health and safety research grants, on crucial subjects like cancer treatment or anything racism-related, can no longer continue because they clashed with the Trump administration’s goals.

Experts have warned that these cuts will not just jeopardize the U.S.’s global standing as a beacon for research and scientific breakthroughs, but may also cost lives and cause a massive setback for research internationally. The cuts will also result in an estimated 68,000 people losing their jobs across the U.S.

The remarks, combined with the administration’s other attacks on scientific research and health guidelines, are a show of the Trump administration’s willingness to sacrifice lives and livelihoods in order to demand compliance with its authoritarian agenda.

For instance, with regards to the administration’s attacks on Harvard University, including funding revocations and other threats to the university’s operations, McMahon said that President Donald Trump is trying to send a message to other schools to comply with the administration’s demands.

“The president is looking at this as, ‘okay, how can we really make our point? And what are the things that Harvard and other universities are doing that we have to call attention to?’” she said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken numerous steps to censor scientific research in order to promote his own disinformation campaign.

On Wednesday, Kennedy threatened to ban government-funded scientists from publishing in the world’s top medical journals, including the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA, calling them “corrupt” without explanation. He said that, under his purview, the government will instead make its own journals that only employ “legitimate scientist[s].”

What Kennedy has historically deemed as “legitimate” science has often been, in actuality, bunk conspiracy theories backed by little to no scientific evidence, like his dangerous views regarding vaccines and autism. Like McMahon, Kennedy has adopted a prescriptive view of scientific inquiry, saying last month that the U.S. will determine the cause of autism — believed by scientists to be caused by various genetic and environmental factors — by September.

Meanwhile, according to a report published Thursday by Notus, Kennedy’s flagship “Make America Healthy Again” report contains numerous glaring errors, including claims that directly contradict the research it cites, and seven studies that don’t exist, seemingly falsified by Trump administration staffers.