Trump's science policy

[John Clark]

Today on Trump's orders NASA eliminated its Chief Scientist position.

And during the state of the union address Trump veered off the text on his teleprompter to say that the CHIPS Act is a “horrible, horrible thing” and he told House speaker Mike Johnson “You should get rid of the CHIP Act”. That bill was passed by Congress last year, thanks to the strong support of President Biden, and would funnel $50 billion to help rebuild the U.S. semiconductor industry so the US would not be totally reliant on Taiwan to make the chips needed for AI and just about everything else in a modern economy. Trump says what we should do instead is dramatically increase the tariff on Taiwan made chips (in other words virtually all chips) so American manufacturers would have to pay more for them. Yes yes I know, that doesn't make any sense, but that's what he wants and many believe the real reason Trump doesn't like the CHIPS Act is that it wouldn't have happened without Biden, and Trump hates Biden. Of course Trump hates just about everybody, except Nazis and dictators, but never mind.

Meanwhile in a recent speech Chinese leader Xi Jinping said "China must win the global Technology race and seize on scientific and technological innovation.” He emphasized the role of education in building China into a “science and techenology great power” and ordered the military to "accelerate the development of qualitatively new combat capabilities.”

John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis

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[Brent Meeker]

Brent