The Trump administration stormed into office, loudly firing workers and closing diversity programs. But behind the scenes, it has also brought biomedical research to the brink of crisis by holding up much of the $47 billion the United States spends on the field every year.
The world’s leading medical labs can be found in the United States, and they rely on grants from the National Institutes of Health. The agency has stopped vetting future studies on cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and other ailments. Trump aides have said they just need time to review spending their predecessors had promised, but it’s unclear what they’re looking for at the N.I.H. or when scholars can expect to start receiving money again.
In today’s newsletter, I’ll walk you through what happened — and why it matters.
A complex machine
Late last month, when the Trump administration froze government grants, a federal judge said it couldn’t just hold back money Congress had agreed to spend. But spending money at the N.I.H., which awards more than 60,000 grants per year, isn’t so simple.
That’s because new grants endure a tortured bureaucratic process. The agency has to notify the public of grant review meetings in The Federal Register, a government publication. Then scientists and N.I.H. officials meet to discuss the proposals. The problem is that the Trump administration banned those announcements “indefinitely.” So new research projects can’t get approved.
In effect, scientists say, the Trump administration is circumventing the court order. Health officials didn’t block research outright, but by shutting down the process, they’re still not spending much of the money Congress allocated to various research goals.
The administration has also proposed other big changes, saying that universities should bear more of the “indirect costs” of research: maintaining lab space, paying support staff. Trump aides say the changes would trim administrative bloat and free up more government money for research.
Labs hit pause
Scientists are panicked, and hundreds of studies are at a standstill, including ones on pancreatic cancer, brain injuries and child health. Last week alone, the N.I.H. canceled 42 of 47 scheduled meetings to assess new grants. Some examples of stalled projects:
For years, Steffanie Strathdee at the University of California San Diego has followed drug users to research overdoses, which kill some 100,000 people in the United States each year. Her investigation of H.I.V. infections in that group was ready to begin — but came to an abrupt halt when the N.I.H. canceled a review panel meeting this month. “Everything is absolutely frozen,” she told me. “It’ll just sit there, hanging in limbo.”
Anthony Richardson at the University of Pittsburgh was expecting a review panel to weigh a grant application of his on staph infections in people with diabetes, a disease that afflicts more than one-tenth of Americans. It never happened. “I am not 100 percent sure what their motives are,” he said.
In response to all the uncertainty, universities are retrenching. The University of Pittsburgh froze Ph.D. admissions. Columbia University’s medical school paused hiring and spending. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology froze the hiring of nonfaculty employees.
Some lab leaders told me they were making contingency plans to fire scientists. Graduate students are searching for new sources of funding.
What next?
It’s hard to say how long the holdup will last. The Trump administration hasn’t submitted a single new grant review meeting to The Federal Register since a day after it took office. And even if it started adding new ones, the agency traditionally gives several weeks’ notice.
At risk are not only the tens of thousands of grants the N.I.H. awards each year, but also American dominance of biomedical research. Every dollar the agency spends on research generates more than two dollars in economic activity, the N.I.H. has said. Scores of patents follow. By some measures, the United States produces more influential health-sciences research than the next 10 leading countries combined.
The science unfolds across the country, including in red states, where lawmakers have complained about proposed changes to indirect costs.
Those findings often fuel pharmaceutical advancements, laying a foundation for drugs and vaccines long before private funders see such work as worth investing in.
Even Ozempic traces its roots back in part to work at the N.I.H on animal venom. Scientists found that the toxin from Gila monster lizards seemed to have particular physiological effects, helping lead eventually to one of the world’s most profitable and promising drugs.
New advances like those, scientists say, are in danger.
THE LATEST NEWS
Government Overhaul
A rift emerged in the White House over Elon Musk’s demand that federal workers justify their jobs: Personnel officials told workers that the order was voluntary, while President Trump called it “genius” and said anyone who did not comply would be punished.
The F.D.A. rehired dozens of specialized employees it fired last week.
At a hearing over Musk’s DOGE effort, a federal judge in Washington expressed skepticism that the operation was constitutional.
A lewd fake video depicting Trump and Musk played on monitors in the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The video appeared to have been generated by artificial intelligence.
More on the Trump Administration
Emmanuel Macron visited Trump at the White House. The two appeared friendly, but their perspectives on the war in Ukraine diverged. Macron also corrected Trump.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick to lead Medicare and Medicaid, has financial ties to medical companies that could overlap with the job.
Speaker Mike Johnson is delaying the confirmation of Representative Elise Stefanik as U.N. ambassador because he can’t afford to lose her vote in the House.
Protesters hung an upside-down American flag on El Capitan, the towering rock formation at Yosemite, in response to Trump’s layoffs at the National Park Service.
MAGA references on a library plaque have divided Huntington Beach, a Southern California surf town.
War in Ukraine
“I couldn’t abandon my brothers”: Some of Ukraine’s wounded soldiers, including amputees, are returning to the front.
For three years, Volodymyr Zelensky’s showmanship helped keep his military supplied with Western weapons. Now, though, the approach is falling flat.
Ukraine and the U.S. are nearing a deal that would grant Washington a share of Kyiv’s revenues from natural resources.
Israel-Hamas War
The cease-fire between Hamas and Israel expires on Sunday. The two sides are yet to begin negotiations for an extension.
Israel is intensifying its operations in the West Bank. It says it’s combating rising militancy in the area; Palestinians say they fear being permanently displaced.
A Hamas official expressed reservations about the Oct. 7 attacks, telling The Times that he would not have supported the plan if he knew the devastation it would bring to Gaza.
Thousands of tons of solid waste have piled up in the streets of Gaza. The war has crippled the enclave’s ability to dispose of garbage and sewage, Reuters reports.
Other Big Stories
Lester Holt announced that he was leaving NBC’s nightly news show. Jen Psaki, who was White House press secretary under Joe Biden, is getting a prime-time show on MSNBC.
Germany’s far-right party, the AfD, has become more popular because of shrinking and aging populations, crumbling government services and sluggish economic growth, Amanda Taub writes. A far-left party has also made a comeback.
NASA announced that an asteroid that previously had a small chance of hitting Earth no longer poses a risk.
Apple plans to spend half a trillion dollars and hire 20,000 people in the U.S. over the next four years. The company also intends to open an A.I. server factory in Texas.
A highway bridge collapse in South Korea killed four workers.
New York City’s congestion pricing program appears to be working: Vehicle traffic is down, foot traffic is up and toll revenue has exceeded expectations.
Opinions
The variety of Trump merch at CPAC, the annual gathering of conservative activists, is evidence of his singular place in the Republican Party, Katherine Miller writes. See photographs.
Democrats should do nothing to oppose Trump, James Carville writes: His administration will crash and burn by itself.
Here are columns by Michelle Goldberg on the F.B.I. deputy director and Thomas Edsall on Trump’s intimidation.
MORNING READS
Trailblazers: In the late 20th century, a group of Black women created restaurants that changed New York dining.
A closer read: Our critic guides you through a wild and unruly sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks.
Ask Vanessa: “Should men wear white jeans?”
Pretenders: Psychologists are warning that chatbots posing as therapists could encourage users to commit harmful acts.
Health: Experts explain what they do, and don’t, recommend to treat cold sores.
Living Small: A couple left Brooklyn to downsize upstate.
Most clicked yesterday: A photo of migrants deported from the U.S., seen through the windows of a hotel in Panama. One woman scrawled “Help” in lipstick, another held up a napkin with a plea for help.
Lives Lived: Clint Hill was the Secret Service agent who leaped onto President John F. Kennedy’s limousine as it came under fire in Dallas and kept a scrambling Jacqueline Kennedy from falling. He died at 93.
SPORTS
N.F.L.: The Green Bay Packers submitted a proposal to the NFL’s competition committee to ban the “tush push,” a tactic of the Super Bowl-winning Eagles.
Scouting Combine: Young players’ arms are measured and compared by the fraction of an inch. See what scouts look for.
N.B.A.: The Bulls beat the 76ers, 142-110. Philadelphia has lost eight straight games.
ARTS AND IDEAS
One hundred years ago today, the musician Art Gillham entered a studio in New York to test a soon-to-be-transformative tool: the microphone. The technology reshaped how artists perform and how we listen. Read about how the microphone changed music.
More on culture
Roberta Flack, a magnetic singer and pianist who blended soul, jazz and folk, died at 88. Majestic anthems like “Killing Me Softly” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” made her one of the most popular artists of the 1970s.
The Met will return an ancient bronze griffin to Greece after determining that it was probably stolen from a Greek museum in the 1930s.
Late night hosts laughed about Musk’s demands.
THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …
Swirl sour cream into a bowl of gombaleves, a Hungarian creamy mushroom soup.
Improve your balance.
Become a better friend.
Make a photo book.
Protect your online accounts with a physical security key.
GAMES
Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were attainability, banality and inability.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow.
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