Trump administration fires all members of US National Science Council | Donald Trump News

Democrats are blasting the latest move by the administration to radically restructure the federal government.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has fired all 22 members of the board that sets policy at the state-funded national science agency, according to a former board member and lawmakers.

The layoffs at the National Science Board (NSB), the policy and advisory arm of the National Science Foundation (NSF), mark the Trump administration’s latest move to radically restructure the government after gutting several agencies, including the Department of Education and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Roger Beachy, who was reappointed by Trump to a second six-year term on the science board in 2020, said he and his colleagues were not given a reason for their dismissal.

“The termination email was short and to the point, with a ‘thank you for your service,'” Beachy, an emeritus professor of biology at Washington University in St Louis, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

Beachy said he expects the Trump administration to appoint a new board, but expressed concern about the nature of the research and education that will be supported by the agency in the future.

“The nature of the board—partisan or independent?—and how it interacts with the agency is critical to the continued success of the NSF,” Beachy said.

Democratic lawmakers, who earlier reported hearing about the firings from unspecified sources, blasted the Trump administration’s actions.

“This is the latest stupid move by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation,” Zoe Lofgren, the most senior member of the US House of Representatives’ science committee, said in a statement.

“Will the president fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who will not stand up to him while he hands our leadership in science to our adversaries?” Lofgren said, calling the firing a “real bozo the clown move.”

The White House and the NSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Trump has yet to publicly confirm or comment on the firing, but his administration has previously targeted the NSF for major cuts imposed by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Under last year’s cost-cutting drive, officials scrapped or halted more than 1,600 NSF grants worth nearly $1 billion.

Founded in 1950 as an independent federal agency, the NSF has spent more than $8 billion on scientific research and education by 2025, making it one of the largest individual funders of science worldwide.

Beachy said it is too early to predict how the layoffs will affect science funding in the long term.

“It is important to note that the support for the NSF, both statutory and in terms of its budget, has been twofold in the past,” he said.

“If such support continues, we can have greater optimism for its future and can look forward to the continued excellence of the American science enterprise.”