A public letter from NASA employees on Monday urges leaders of the space agency not to carry out deep cuts sought by the Trump administration, the New York Times reports.

“The Trump administration’s attack on scientific institutions has been characteristically audacious: Eliminating the U.S. Agency for International Development, which funded healthcare interventions and research worldwide. Removing all the members of the vaccine advisory panel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cutting healthcare research funding by $1.8 billion and overall funding for the National Institutes of Health by $3 billion,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“It has also homed in on what might seem like a small-bore opponent: the highly specialized world of science and medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association.”

The Hill: NIH scientists condemn Trump research cuts.

“NASA and Pentagon officials moved swiftly this past week to urge competitors to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to more quickly develop alternative rockets and spacecraft after President Donald Trump threatened to cancel Space X’s contracts and Musk’s defiant response,” the Washington Post reports.

“Government officials were especially stunned after Musk responded to Trump with a salvo of his own: SpaceX would stop flying its Dragon spacecraft, a move that would leave the space agency with no way to transport its astronauts to the International Space Station.”

“Elon Musk’s threat Thursday to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft would have left NASA reliant on Russian capsules to get its astronauts into space,” Axios reports.

“Musk’s rift with President Trump exposes how reliant NASA has become on a single private sector partner to reach the International Space Station after ending the space shuttle program in 2011.”

“Musk eventually walked back the threat Thursday, but it demonstrates how critical SpaceX is to the American space program.”

The Guardian: “Senior officials at the US Department of Veterans Affairs have ordered that VA physicians and scientists not publish in medical journals or speak with the public without first seeking clearance from political appointees of Donald Trump.”

New York Times: “As the Trump administration moves with abandon to deny visas, expel foreign students and slash spending on research, scientists in the United States are becoming increasingly alarmed. The global supremacy that the United States has long enjoyed in health, biology, the physical sciences and other fields, they warn, may be coming to an end.”

New York Times: “As President Trump cuts billions of federal dollars from science institutes and universities, restricts what can be studied and pushes out immigrants, rival nations are hoping to pick up talent that has been cast aside or become disenchanted.”

“For decades, trying to compete with American institutions and companies has been difficult. The United States was a magnet for top researchers, scientists and academics. In general, budgets were bigger, pay was bigger, labs and equipment were bigger. So were ambitions.”

Paul Krugman: “Why do our new rulers want to destroy science in America? Sadly, the answer is obvious: Science has a tendency to tell you things you may not want to hear. Medical research may tell you that vaccines work and don’t cause autism. Energy research may tell wind power works and doesn’t massacre birds.”

“And one thing we know about MAGA types is that they are determined to hold on to their prejudices. If science conflicts with those prejudices, they don’t want to know, and they don’t want anyone else to know either. So they really want to destroy science.”

“Again, this isn’t hyperbole, and it’s not about the long run. American science is being gutted as you read this.”

“A federal prosecutor in Washington has contacted The New England Journal of Medicine, considered the world’s most prestigious medical journal, with questions that suggested without evidence that it was biased against certain views and influenced by external pressures,” the New York Times reports.

“At least three other journals have received similar letters from Edward Martin Jr., a Republican activist serving as interim U.S. attorney in Washington. Mr. Martin has been criticized for using his office to target opponents of the administration.”

“President Trump’s tariffs could drive up prices. His efforts to reduce the federal work force could increase unemployment. But ask economists which of the administration’s policies they are most concerned about and many point to cuts to federal support for scientific research,” the New York Times reports.

“The Trump administration in recent weeks has canceled or frozen billions of dollars in federal grants made to researchers through the National Institutes of Health, and has moved to sharply curtail funding for academic medical centers and other institutions. It has also, through the initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency, tried to fire hundreds of workers at the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency. And it has revoked the visas of hundreds of foreign-born students.”

“To economists, the policies threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in emerging areas like artificial intelligence, and to leave Americans as a whole poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead.”

A new Nature poll found 75% of scientists are considering leaving the United States following the disruptions prompted by President Trump.

Europe and Canada were among the top choices for relocation. The trend was particularly pronounced among early-career researchers.

John Ellis: “These are terrifying numbers, if true. Even if only 35% of the best young scientific minds in the United States are seriously considering living and working elsewhere, the numbers are still terrifying. Brain drain is always a disaster. Nothing good comes from it. The downside is enormous. And the more that leave, the more will follow.”

Washington Post: Trump promised scientific breakthroughs. Researchers say he’s breaking science.

“Europe is investing millions in a flurry of newly announced academic programs, in an energetic effort to lure top American scientists across the Atlantic at the same time President Donald Trump casts many U.S. research efforts into turmoil with funding cuts and executive edicts,” the Washington Post reports.

“The federal agency that produces weather forecasts and leads research on climate and the oceans has canceled leases for research centers and slashed its staff to ‘devastating’ effect,” The Verge reports.

“Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration laid off hundreds of probationary employees, who make up roughly 10 percent of its workforce. The agency has plans to lay off around 50 percent of its staff in total.”

“NASA is a methodical institution that plans its missions years or even decades in advance, enjoys a famously loyal workforce and carries out its tasks with the kind of precision required to hurl humans into orbit, drive rovers on Mars or build telescopes that can see nearly to the dawn of time,” the Washington Post reports.

“But at the moment, NASA employees and contractors don’t know what tomorrow will bring — or even if they’ll have jobs. With President Donald Trump’s return to power and the billionaire space entrepreneur Elon Musk patrolling government agencies, the world’s premier space agency has entered a murky realm.”

“If you have been involved in good science, you have nothing to worry about.”

— Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., quoted by the Daily Beast, on the coming staff purge at health agencies.