Donald Trump isn’t waging war on science. He just doesn’t care

Under Trump, US science policy is on autopilot and largely directionless. Here is how to tackle this lack of leadership

The first time the word "science" appeared in a tweet by Donald Trump was on 13 September 2012, long before he became US president, when he wrote: "Wake Up America! See article: 'Israeli Science: Obama Birth Certificate is a Fake'." Since becoming president, Trump has not mentioned the words "science" or "technology" in his tweets, reflecting not so much disdain for these issues but an abject lack of interest.

After the 2016 election, the benign neglect of science policy was not an option anticipated by many, including Jack Stilgoe and me on this blog (though Robert Cook-Deegan did). It may not be a bad thing for the scientific community, but it does leave policy gaps that need to be filled.