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Trump's "Gold Standard" of Science is anything but [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-24
We all know how science works, right? You experiment, you verify, it gets peer reviewed and people can rely on it and treat it as fact. Trump has other ideas.
The new Executive Order is titled: Restoring Gold Standard Science. It's another gold thingy to go along with the Gold Oval Office, his Gold Flying 747 Brothel, Golden Dome System, Golden Age, Liquid Gold and his gold face and finger.
Just scanning the order quickly, I saw CDC recommendations about school operations during Covid, right whales and lobster fishery, climate change, DEI in science.
"Actions taken by the prior Administration further politicized science, for example, by encouraging agencies to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion considerations into all aspects of science planning, execution, communication."
Someday, Trump will realize he's never going to be included in a list of great presidents. No inclusion for Donald.
Then he lists his version of definitions:
Scientific information Scientific misconduct Fabrication Falsification Plagiarism Weight of scientific evidence
They aren't what you think they should be.
The Gold Standard of Science is:
Reproducible Transparent Communicative of error and uncertainty Collaborative and interdisciplinary Skeptical of its findings and assumptions Structured for falsifiability of hypotheses Subject to unbiased peer review Accepting of negative results as positive outcomes Without conflicts of interest
Let's go to the Fact Sheet sheet for the Gold Standard of Science. (they've screwed up here because the filename says it's about nuclear reactors, a different EO).
"This order reinstates the scientific integrity policies of the first Trump Administration and ensures that science is no longer manipulated or misused to justify political ends..."
A shot at Joe Biden right out of the box.
"For too long, bureaucratic agendas, political interference, and inconsistent standards have eroded the American people's trust in science."
What he means is talking about climate changes being real is somehow false because he said so.
"Under the Biden Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), incorporated edits by a teacher's union into its school reopening guidance, which discouraged in-person learning."
Yeah, well, it's hard to learn if you're dying. Children were susceptible to Covid just like everyone else. Considering the 6-ft distance guidelines, it's kind of hard to hold a classroom together. That's how we learned to use virtual learning.
Then there's the crime that the National Marine Fisheries Service determined a worst case scenario for the right whale, which was protected by the Endangered Species Act. It was overturned by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals due to skewed evidence. Well, it wasn't skewed evidence. It was found that the right whale was getting tangled up in netting and long lines and dying as a result. They were also getting hit by ships. On January 30, 2025, the First Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the rule protecting the right whale. This is why Trump brings it up as an example.
What really gets Trump is the Representative Concentration Pathways 8.5. This was a prediction of what was going to happen if climate change was not addressed by reducing carbon emissions and moving to renewable energy.
"Agencies have relied on the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 to justify climate change policies that hamper the American energy industry, and unrealistic worst case climate scenario with exaggerated coal use assumptions, which scientists have criticized as misleading."
Well, it turns out that those assumptions about coal use were correct. The Chinese are building one coal fired plant every week. And you want to maximize use of your "beautiful clean coal." There's no such thing. You are actually creating the very environment you say doesn't exist.
"The Biden Administration manipulated science to achieve political ends, and conducted subpar science designed to support predetermined outcomes instead of objective science and well-designed policies."
The accusation of Biden manipulating science is absolutely ridiculous. Trump ignores science at every opportunity. Trump can't even understand the truth when it's hitting him right in the face. That's because it's inconvenient.
Trump then spends the rest of the fact sheet patting himself on the back, as he always does, because he's so damn smart.
Underlying this new gold standard is an obvious shot at agency regulations controlling things such as emission standards, pollution, the effect of everything on climate change, and physical safety. Trump is anti-life. He does it under the guise of trying to do something good.
The day Trump actually does something good, I'll probably have a heart attack. But that's why I feel safe talking about it, because he never will do anything good.
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