Published at Open the Books Substack

In his address to a joint session of Congress earlier this year, President Trump promised to "conquer the frontiers of science." Many journalists and critics then feigned confusion when his budget took direct aim at the National Science Foundation, slashing funding by 55%, to $3.9 billion.

Sen. Bernie Sanders has bemoaned Trump’s “War on Science,” while a sample Nature headline blared “an attack on science anywhere is an attack on science everywhere.”

How to reconcile the cuts with promises to conquer new frontiers, explore deeper into space and win the Artificial Intelligence race? Well, they’re not as irreconcilable as some would like us to think.

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