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| Shared Idea |
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| TACO
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| Trump repeatedly makes false or unclear statements. He has a long record of bankruptcy, racist and sexist statements and an egotistic pattern that lauds autocracies. His repeated fluctuations on tariffs and foreign policy contributed to the popularization in May 2025 of the acronym of TACO -- Trump Always Chickens Out.
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| In his 2024 presidential campaign, he made promises to return to fossil fuels for energy. In the September-October 2025 issue of Technology Review, James Temple noted how "the Trump administration has slashed federal support for the emerging cleantech sector." He went on to state that "Trump has set to work unraveling hand-won clean-energy achievements in the US, snuffing out the momentum gathering to rebuild the nation's energy sector in cleaner, more sustainable ways" and that "[I]t does not particularly matter whether Trump believes in or cares about climate change. The economic and international security imperatives to invest in modern, sustainable industries are every bit as indisputable as the chemistry of greenhouse gases."
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| Temple closed by stating: "But stiff tariffs and tough talk aren't what built the world's largest economy and established the US as the global force in technology for more than a century. What did was deep, sustained federal investment into education, science, and research and development--the very budget items that Trump and his party have been so eager to eliminate."
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| In the September 2025 issue of Population Connection, John Seager pointed out "now we must deal with the Trump administration's wholesale assault on reproductive health here at home and its callous cancellation of US investments in international family planning -- a program that has been in place since Lyndon Johnson was president. Those are the extinction events we should be worrying about this very minute." The health repercussions are now a part of the current world news.
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| In the October 2025 issue of Scientific American, Paul M. Sutten stated how "American science now faces its own sharpened edge. The Trump administration stands with its sword drawn. It's choking our universities. It's stamping out the free flow of ideas. It's cutting funding to basic science. It's ready to make the killing blow, all in the name of making America great again...Cutting annual research funding in half would save the average American taxpayer $260 this year...and cost them $10,000 in future wealth."
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| There were two relevant articles in the 25 September 2025 issue of Science. In an editorial, H. Christopher Frey noted that the EPA was founded in 1970 and "its Office of Research and Development (ORD) has since developed and translated science to inform decisions that protect human health and the environment. Yet, even with many environmental challenges to address, ORD was eliminated by the Trump administration in July. Cutting the legs off a science-based agency, as well as the paucity of information about how ORD would be absorbed into policy or political parts of the agency, raises concerns that fundamental, long-term research and innovation will suffer and that EPA science will be vulnerable to political interference."
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| Frey went on. "Without its research arm, EPA will lack credible science to make decisions about protecting national public health and the environment. This loss also signals a reduced US commitment to the environment that weakens global public health." Elsewhere in that issue, Erik Stokstad stated that the "world's first treaty to protect marine biodiversity in the high seas will enter into force in January...The United States does not intend to ratify the treaty."
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| Three other articles appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of Solutions. Joanna Foster pointed out a lab that "used to be home to the Environmental Protection Agency's Human Studies Facility, where scientists studied the effects of air pollution like ozone and wildlife smoke on human health -- research that helped inform lifesaving national air quality standards. But this spring, the Trump administration canceled its lease, and the lab, including millions of dollars of unique, state-of-the-art equipment that cannot be relocated, is now collecting dust." Tom Clynes stated "Since President Trump's return to office, his administration has purged more than 8,000 government web pages and 3,000 datasets -- wiping out scientists' and the public's access to climate, health and environmental justice information from the EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies." Vanessa Glavinskas added "When Laurie Anderson heard that the Trump administration was inviting major polluters across the country to apply for a 'presidential exemption' from clean air rules, she says it felt like a slap in the face. 'Offering these exemptions is basically saying that the administration doesn't care about the health and safety of the people living near polluting facilities.'"
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| In Trump's reelection Make America Great Again campaign statement, item #7 set a goal to "Defend our Constitution...including freedom of speech." David Berrios shared the following statement in his letter in the October 2025 newsletter Reproductive Freedom for All. "Every week, Donald Trump finds new ways to ignite chaos and confusion -- all to distract us from his unconstitutional power grabs and his efforts to further dismantle our democracy."
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| To be continued next month....
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