File:National Center for Atmospheric Research - Vought-Trump shut it down.png

December 2025

Russell T. Vought is "a right-wing absolute zealot"

-- Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff for President Donald J. Trump

December 16, 2025

• https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-susie-wiles-interview-exclusive-part-1

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Tracking_science_policy_across_the_Trump_administration.png

Russell Vought, the former vice president of the Heritage Foundation’s lobbying arm and current director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, gave USA Today the scoop on Tuesday (Dec. 16) and posted his plan and [ir]rationale on X as well, claiming that “this facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country” -- Andy Revkin, https://revkin.substack.com/p/trumps-demolition-derby-continues

This is not a center for alarmism. The science that comes from @NCAR_Science has made the United States a leader in tracking severe weather, modeling extreme floods and even the effects of increased solar activity and how it impacts our atmosphere here on Earth. Research that comes from here benefits us all from a safety and infrastructure standpoint. And, economically, the science helps mitigate a growing number of #billiondollar #weatherdisasters -- Al Roker

Wider anti-science efforts

This action is similar to the admnistration’s assault on NASA’s climate research (including ending the lease for the legendary Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan). There is a wider assault on missions, budgets and resources at other agencies where work involves climate or renewable energy. Just a short drive from NCAR, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on December 1 underwent a name and mission change. The Department of Energy dropped the word renewable from the name and mission of the lab. It’s now called the National Lab of the Rockies.

The climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe posted a comment on LinkedIn that is worth sharing:

The National Center for Atmospheric Research is quite literally our global mothership. Nearly everyone who conducts research in climate, atmospheric science, and weather -- not only in the US but around the world -- has passed through its doors and benefited from its incredible resources.

NCAR supports the scientists who fly into hurricanes, the meteorologists who develop new radar technology, the physicists who envision and code new weather models, and yes - the largest community climate model in the world. That too.

Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.

And that understanding was already under strain: the funding freeze on the national network of Climate Adaptation Science Centers in September, the discontinuation of key NASA satellite data records, the removal of EPA climate indicators last week, and a thousand other actions—large and small—all aimed at suppressing our ability to study how humans are affecting our shared home, how we can protect ourselves, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, and most of all how build a better future together.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis posted a reaction to initial reports on Tuesday. Here’s an excerpt:

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. If these cuts move forward we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery.

More:

Russell Vought is not an elected official. He is best known for his contributions to Project 2025, a plan for gutting the U.S. government and installing a theocratic dictatorship. Project 2025 was so unpopular when it came to light last summer—only 4% of voters who knew about it wanted to see it enacted—that Trump insisted he had nothing to do with it.

-- Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American, October 3, 2025

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