Executive Action Reaction: Day 3

Since the inauguration, the Prospect has been dedicated to contextualizing and explaining, clearly and succinctly, what Donald Trump is doing in office with his early executive actions, and who really benefits. You can find our first two days of roundups, with nearly two dozen explanations of various executive actions, here and here. We continue that work today. Keep checking back for updates throughout the day.

President Trump, as part of sweeping changes to the federal bureaucracy, has imposed unprecedented harsh restrictions on the National Institutes of Health. All travel has been canceled, ruining many important conferences. All agency communications have been banned until further notice, blocking a highly anticipated report on the festering avian flu outbreak that has killed millions of birds, and could cause another pandemic if it mutates to enable human-to-human transmission. Worst of all, all study sections, which are required to disburse NIH’s $40 billion in grants—supporting some 300,000 working scientists at thousands of universities—are also halted indefinitely.

These decisions may be reversed, but damage is already accumulating fast, and the outlook is bleak.

The NIH is arguably the premier institution of medical research in the world. Founded in 1887, its scientists and grant programs have advanced countless groundbreaking discoveries, like the structure of DNA, chemotherapy, and the mRNA vaccine. NIH scientist Barney Graham designed the core of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine over a single weekend. Its scientists and grants have supported work that has won 174 Nobel Prizes and counting; most recently the chemist David Baker in 2024.

In short, NIH is the kind of thing that used to be recognized as central to both American prosperity and geopolitical influence. The social and strategic benefits to owning such an immensely successful research complex are immense. Even Trump in his first term did not meddle that much with the agency.

But in his second term, Trump stands at the head of a rising tide of vengeful, crackbrained irrationalism that might well end American scientific pre-eminence. Witness Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee to run NIH’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services—a delusional, paranoid anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist. It would be hard to imagine a worse person for the job. This nomination by itself could conceivably cause a bird flu pandemic.

It wouldn’t be the first time a country lobotomized itself in a fit of pique. Before 1933, Germany was the clear world leader in academic research and achievement, winning far more Nobel Prizes than any other country. Hitler and the Nazis blew that up in a crusade against liberalism and “Jewish science,” driving most top researchers across Europe (like Albert Einstein) to Britain or the U.S., where many of them worked on the Manhattan Project. German science never recovered fully. –Ryan Cooper

The set of executive actions dealing with energy have been interesting. First off, they exist in an alternate reality where we are in an energy “emergency,” when we’re a net exporter of fossil fuels, the biggest natural gas exporter in the world, etc. (To the extent we are in an emergency, lending public support to a massive ramp-up in energy use at AI data centers might be one reason!)

Second, Trump made a big deal out of ending the pause on approving LNG terminals when in fact a federal judge had already overturned that pause.

Third, I have been told for the entirety of the Biden administration that any changes in permitting would solely benefit renewable energy, because fossil fuel companies can already get their projects permitted easily. That’s not what Donald Trump thinks! His energy orders seek to create “permit by rule” to greenlight multiple projects at once. But this is only for oil and gas pipelines, coal plants—infrastructure that relies on hydrocarbons—along with a few other favored industries (biofuels, hydropower, nuclear). It’s almost like the desired outcome is driving the permitting improvement. Funny how that works!

Fourth, wind has borne the brunt of the attacks in the war on renewables; solar has avoided most of the restrictions thus far. Fortunately, no solar company tried to build an offshore platform in front of Trump’s golf course in Scotland.

Fifth, Trump is simultaneously trying to restore domestic development of rare earth minerals and stop development of the kind of energy projects that require … rare earth minerals. I guess this is in the category of “If people want something, let’s hoard it.” It’s a technique financiers use to corner markets.

And sixth, Trump got rid of a Biden executive order on climate-related financial risk. Banks had already been backpedaling away from their climate commitments, and the Federal Reserve dropped out of the Network for Greening the Financial System, a coalition of central banks, the Friday before the inauguration. This opens a major financial risk that eventually will catch up with the world, and when that crisis hits, we should remember this moment. –David Dayen

Continuing its campaign against immigrants, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded the “sensitive locations” policy that prohibited Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from arresting migrants in or near schools, churches, and hospitals.

The policy, which was implemented in 2011, meant that undocumented people could attend funerals, get medical care, and send their children to school without fear of deportation. Now, that small glimmer of safety is gone.

Reports from cities with large immigrant communities are already confirming that Trump’s threats of mass deportation have increased fear. In Chicago, a usually bustling thoroughfare in the 75 percent Mexican American neighborhood Little Village was silent on Tuesday night. In California, some parents have been keeping their children home from school.

And perhaps that increased fear is the point, pushing immigrants underground and making life in America more and more difficult. Trump and his allies are pushing for what Mitt Romney in 2012 called “self-deportation,” the idea that the government can use policy to drive immigrants out of the country without using physical force.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has also suggested this strategy: “If you wanna self-deport, you should self-deport because, again, we know who you are, and we’re gonna come and find you,” he said.

The decision to rescind the “sensitive locations” policy came from acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Benjamine Huffman, who was empowered by a number of Trump’s executive orders that allow the administration to “take all appropriate action to repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border.”

A DHS spokesperson said that the policy would ensure that “criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.” Of course, the only people hiding in America’s schools are children who are there to learn, and the administration knows that. The spokesperson also said that ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents will “use common sense” when they conduct raids, putting the decision to raid schools or hospitals into the hands of individual agents and removing an essential safeguard against the repression of immigrant communities. –Emma Janssen

>>Read more updates at prospect.org