Gretchen Goldman, PhD

Trump’s Efforts to Control Information Echo an Authoritarian Playbook

The firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief is the latest move leading us down a dangerous path that threatens the future of US science and democracy.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/u...

Trump Orders Firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Chief After Weak Jobs Report President Trump said he directed his team to fire the top Bureau of Labor Statistics official after the bureau issued a weak jobs report on Friday. Trump in a social media post said Erika McEntarfer, ...

By design, federal statistical agencies operate independently to guard against politicization of data collection and reporting.

This is an alarming and dangerous move that threatens the scientific integrity of independent statistical agencies across the government. www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

Trump Administration Launches Broadside Attack on Science-Backed Endangerment Finding, Public Health Protections Trump Administration Launches Broadside Attack on Science-Backed Endangerment Finding, Climate and Public Health Protections

It's a sad day when our leaders turn their back on long established science to try and roll back public health protections while the dangers of climate change are palpable on a daily basis. We cannot let this stand. www.ucs.org/about/news/t...

Trump EPA aims to repeal vehicle emission rules after revoking greenhouse gas endangerment finding The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to repeal all greenhouse gas emission standards for light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicles and engines in the coming days after it removes the scientific finding that justified those rules, according to a summary of the proposal.

The administration’s efforts to attack the endangerment finding and circumvent the Clean Air Act would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.

This action would hurt people’s pocketbooks, slow the transition to clean transportation, and worsen the climate crisis.

www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Congress' aim at rescission at Federal science agencies is an existential threat to American leadership in science and technology. US science investments benefit all of us and drastic cuts will harm communities nationwide. As the science community, we cannot allow this to happen. #ProtectScience

The current administration's systematic dismantling of our research infrastructure—402 documented attacks in just 6 months—represents more than policy disagreement. It's an abandonment of the principle that knowledge should serve the common good and expand opportunity for all communities.

Six Months in, UCS Is in the Fight for the Long Haul Six months into the second Trump administration, what's UCS doing to fight attacks on science?

At @ucs.org, we are in it for the fight. For those of us who care about a functional democracy, the preservation of human rights, fighting climate change, protecting public health, and our environment, we cannot back down and I hope you will join us. #ProtectScience blog.ucs.org/gretchen-gol...

The Trump administration is actively dismantling American leadership in science, technology and innovation through its decimation of Federal science agencies' budgets, staffing, and authority. Congress must reject these cuts. #ProtectScience

Science and Democracy Under Siege Documenting Six Months of the Trump Administration’s Destructive Actions

We are six months into the second Trump administration and the scale and severity of its assault on our nation's science and democracy has been unrelenting.

Today, @ucs.org releases a detailed assessment of the damage so far and where we go from here: www.ucs.org/resources/sc... #ProtectScience

Excellent piece articulating how the provisions of the Trump Administration's Gold Standard Standard will be weaponized to weaken the role of science in policy, given the long history of use of these tactics by political and industry actors.

www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

E.P.A. Says It Will Eliminate Its Scientific Research Arm

Terrible Friday news dump.The wealth of expertise. The decades of scientific progress. The emerging and urgent challenges we were focused on tackling. It is all so short-sided and cruel. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/c...

Me and co panelists seated on stage

Me and co panelists posed

Grateful for the conversations and ideas this week at @bloomberg.com #BloombergGreen Seattle event. Given the scale of challenges, there is lots we can and must do together to make climate progress.

This kind of move wastes a lot of time and resources. I would even venture to say that firing a diverse, already vetted group of science advisors set to provide robust and independent expert advice to the government is far from "gold standard science."

Supreme Court Clears Way for Mass Firings at Federal Agencies

Bad news for anyone who cares about science informed decisions in the US. The Administration now has a green light to try to indiscriminately fire en masse the civil servants who provide deep expertise and critical services to keep the public safe and healthy. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/u...

Trump Hires Scientists Who Doubt the Consensus on Climate Change

Deeply disappointing to see the Trump administration hire scientists who reject the scientific consensus on climate. This is a tired and long delegitimized tactic (involving the same actors) and one that stands to harm communities everywhere. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/c...

Seven Things You Need to Know About the Texas Flash Flood Tragedy We cannot allow Trump administration to attack, defund, and dismantle NOAA and FEMA.

"DHS secretary Kristi Noem’s remarks about “working to upgrade technology” during a post-disaster media briefing are particularly galling when in fact this administration is taking a hatchet to NOAA’s science, data, and modeling capabilities."

blog.ucs.org/rachel-cleet...

In a democracy, government employees can voice respectful dissent to their leadership. But today, EPA leadership retaliated against its own employees for expressing disagreement w/ the admin’s actions & policy directions. Punishing gov't employees for this expression is an alarming development. 🧵

E.P.A. Suspends 144 Employees After They Signed a Letter Criticizing Trump

Completely unacceptable that EPA put on leave their employees who spoke up in defense of their agency's mission to protect public health. EPA officials are demonstrating their unwillingness to even engage with their own staff. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/c...

We Need Sound Policy Informed by Science. The Trump Administration Is Undermining it. With a name like "gold standard science," you might expect the Trump administration's guidelines on federal science to be awesome. They're not.

Wouldn't an OSTP director wanting to “reinforce scientific rigor and excellence,” consider it a golden opportunity to inherit a scientific integrity project to build on? Instead, we got a golden facade, behind which lurk threats to science in federal spaces altogether. blog.ucs.org/gretchen-gol...

Breaking Down the Massive Cuts to Science Funding

1. Trump cuts to science have massive impacts and deserve mainstream attention like this.

2. Health research focused on understudied populations conducted under the Biden Administration is in no way equivalent to the political interference in research happening now. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/p...

Sound policy demands sound science For more than a decade, prominent scientists across disciplines and institutions in the United States have expressed concerns about the quality of the nation’s science and, in the best scientific trad...

The richness of President Trump's Science Advisor accusing others of politicizing science as they gut Federal science agencies and target politically contentious science topics—like climate, equity, and vaccines—with surgical precision is really quite something. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

My headshot designed with "Bloomberg Green Ones to Watch" text

Honored to be named to @bloomberg.com Ones to Watch List alongside an all-star set of folks announced today, and looking forward to the Bloomberg Green Seattle event next month. Let's get to work. 🧪⚡🌍 www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Kings don't belong in America, y'all. #nokings

Seeing all the "last day" posts from EPA staff today is heartbreaking. You deserved so much better, my friends.

I was honored to give the @societyforepi.bsky.social #SER2025 plenary today about what it means to be a scientist in this challenging time. I'm energized from conversations with the epidemiology community and all we can collectively do to action.

The US executive order establishing “Gold Standard Science” does anything but Policy decisions must be based on the best available science and protected from political interference, write Gretchen Goldman and Jules Barbati - Dajches The Trump administration recently released ...

"Behind the rhetoric of scientific values like transparency, reproducibility, and integrity, the [executive] order disrupts longstanding process and policy in US science and undermines the principles it claims to uphold."
- @gretchentg.bsky.social & @jbd-phd.bsky.social
www.bmj.com/content/389/...

Trump’s ‘gold standard’ order is a blueprint for politicizing science The Trump executive order is not a pathway to a “gold standard” — it is a blueprint for politicizing science and marginalizing expertise, write Jacob Carter and Gretchen Goldman.

"If we are to achieve a true gold standard, we need federal leadership that supports, not dismantles, the U.S. science enterprise and whose actions follow a bold positive vision for the future of science." - Jacob Carter of @scilight.bsky.social & @gretchentg.bsky.social of @ucs.org

NIH employees publish ‘Bethesda Declaration’ in dissent of Trump administration policies | CNN Staffers at the US National Institutes of Health published a letter of dissent, taking issue with what they see as the politicization of research and destruction of scientific progress under the Trump...

National Institutes of Health employees have had enough. Impressive showing of more than 300 staffers ask leaders to "return the NIH to its mission and abandon the strategy of using NIH as a tool for achieving political goals" in their Bethesda Declaration. www.cnn.com/2025/06/09/h...

The Trump administration recently released the deceptively named “Gold Standard Science” executive order.

The order disrupts longstanding process and policy in US science and undermines the principles it claims to uphold, @ucs.org
www.bmj.com/content/389/...

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The Gold Standard Science Executive Order should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about evidence-based policy. The EO resurrects efforts to restrict the science that can be used in agency decisions. More from me and @jbd-phd.bsky.social in a new @bmj.com Opinion: www.bmj.com/content/389/...