December 17, 2025 10:36 AM UTC

NCAR Next On Trump's Make America Ignorant Again Chopping Block

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Melissa Reeves reports for 9NEWS, the Trump administration has targeted another once-invaluable Colorado research facility for elimination as the war on any form of scientific research that might get in the way of Donald Trump’s New Golden Age rolls onward:

The future of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder is in question after a Trump administration official said on social media that the federal government plans to break up the research institution.

In a post on X, Russ Vought, who is the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), wrote that the National Science Foundation would be “breaking up” NCAR, calling the Boulder-based center “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”

As the Denver Post’s Lauren Pennington reports, the formal dismantlement of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) comes after the lab’s budget was cut by 40% over the summer:

The foundation previously announced plans to cut NCAR’s budget by 40%, which would have resulted in “large-scale cuts” to the lab in Boulder.

Federal efforts to dissolve NCAR will begin immediately, White House officials told USA Today, which first reported the administration’s plans. Officials pointed to “UCAR’s woke direction,” and called several of its initiatives wasteful and frivolous, according to USA Today…

But Colorado has yet to receive information about President Trump’s intent to pull funding for the lab, Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.

“If true, public safety is at risk and science is being attacked,” Polis stated. “Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science. NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families.”

Other than joining in the sorrow over the loss of yet another crucial research institution investigating what Americans still believe is a major threat, the only thing we have to add is a sense of irony in this announcement while the Front Range grapples with the consequences of human-caused climate change–in the form of extreme fire weather in December resulting in the shutoff of power to thousands of households. And while Trump hasn’t yet openly stated that this is another instance of retaliation against the state of Colorado for our mail ballot/Tina Peters misdeeds, that ulterior motive lurks beneath every adverse move the administration makes against our state.

Add it to the long list of Trump’s historic blunders that will have to be undone someday. Future administrations, like the next generation, will have a lot of catching up to do.