Make America Great Again ... Revised

The expression “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) has tragically become a polarizing mantra, even though we all want our country to be great. It’s the battle cry of President Donald Trump and his most ardent MAGA supporters. But who suddenly decided that we are no longer great? The devil is in the details. 

​Many would argue that our diversity has made us great. Certainly, our remarkable constitution and the freedoms granted by the Bill of Rights are key. However, in assessing proposed federal spending, the administration seems to believe that our military is behind our greatness, with a proposed increase in the military budget of over 40% and a reduction in many non-military programs. Any student of history knows that great military powers come and go: the Roman and Persian Empires, the Aztecs and Inca, and Germany during the two world wars. If we hinge our future on military strength, we’ll be reduced to a sad chapter in a future history book. Our greatness lies elsewhere.

​According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), 85% of our economic growth since World War II has been driven by science and technology. (Souvaine) Since World War II, federal funding through agencies such as the NSF has fueled research that has made us unequaled in technology, health care, space exploration, manufacturing, and ... military prowess. 

​History shows that ignoring science leads to failure. Look no further than the Soviet Union in the 20th century, which rejected scientific research in advancing agriculture. Stalin set back their agricultural program by decades when he endorsed the pseudoscientific teachings of Trofim Lysenko, who rejected the science of genetics. Tragically, in 2025, by largely turning its back on science, the current administration may have set us on a course to be a second-tier nation, something most thought unfathomable.

For the first time in decades, the 2025 federal science budget declined, with many federal science agencies reducing both staff and the number of grants they support. The federal government did not always invest heavily in science research. While practical science projects such as agriculture, fisheries, landscaping, and mapping have always been funded, pure research was not. That changed in 1933 when Hitler took over Germany, causing many scientists to leave for the United States. They made many contributions to the technology behind our war effort, most notably the Manhattan Project, the research project that led to the development of the atomic bomb. After the war, the federal government increased its support of scientific research.

Most noticeably, the research led to the development of rockets and the means to send humans into space. Computers were a byproduct of the space program. Although the Soviet Union was the first to launch a satellite and to put a man in space, the United States put its space program in overdrive and was the first to land a person on the Moon. Science did this, and the technology that emerged from that program helped solidify the country’s status as a premier power. 

With both federal and private funding, the United States has led the world in scientific research, easily surpassing other countries in the number of Nobel Prizes awarded in chemistry, physics, and medicine. Our universities have attracted the top science talent from around the world. Sadly, there is evidence that this is beginning to change. 

In a 2025 survey of 311 scientists and institutional leaders, 

• 87% report their labs are suffering financially.

• 90% believe budget cuts will affect research progress.

• 75% of science administrators report low faculty morale.

• 56% of scientific staff are considering leaving the US academia. (bioRender)

While many of the positions have been restored, for maybe the first time in my lifetime, there is a reverse science migration, as many research projects and graduate students are heading abroad. In the 2020s, business may appear normal, but what about the 2040s? The current politicians will be long gone, but we may be haunted by what has occurred in 2025. How can the United States be first economically if we trail in science? Like him or not, President Donald Trump is worried about his legacy. Erecting statues, renaming buildings, and building gaudy ballrooms may be his legacy today, but in 2 decades, his failure to recognize the importance of science may be what Americans remember.

Compounding the problem is a growing public skepticism of science, enhanced by the current administration’s positions. Many now believe a friend’s advice over a doctor’s, or a politician’s viewpoint over that of a career researcher. It’s taken us several generations to become a scientific powerhouse, but it would take us less than a generation to become a second-tier country. China is increasing science funding, while we are decreasing it. It doesn’t take a genius to project this 20 years into the future. We can “Make America Great Again,” if we ever stopped being great, by riding the back of science. 

​I talked to a student the other day, who is planning to study abroad because she fears her field of research will no longer be funded in the United States. Other countries are thrilled and beginning to see the research explosion we experienced in the 1930s and 1940s. How sad to see our brainpower beginning to leave. I somehow managed to fight through Gibbon’s The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and attempted (and failed) to get through William Shirer’s similarly titled book on the Third Reich. Fifty years from now, I fear someone will be writing The Rise and Fall of the United States. They will cite our downfall in the scientific world as the number one cause of the decline. I don’t want that book to be on the reading list of my great-grandchildren.

Sources:

Busiek, Julia. “How the US became a science superpower.” University of California, 11 Sep 2025. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/how-us-became-science-superpower.

“How U.S. Science Is Responding to Federal Funding Cuts.” bioRender, 2025. https://www.biorender.com/2025-science-funding-report.

Kozlov, Max; Tollefson, Jeff; Garisto, Dan. “US Science After a Year of Trump.”  Nature, 20 Jan 2026. https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-026-00088-9/index.html.

Souvaine, Diane. “Research & Innovation: Ensuring America’s Economic and Strategic Leadership.” National Science Foundation, Testimony before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science, Oceans, Fisheries, and Weather Committee on Commerce, Science, Transportation, October 22, 2019

Sutter, Paul. “Science Makes the U.S. a Great Nation.” Scientific American, October 2025, Volume 333, No. 3, pp. 65-66.