Stanford political science professor Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration, addressed President Donald Trump‘s suggestion of pulling $3 billion in federal funding of research grants from Harvard University.
McFaul responded on X by writing: “If you don’t want the federal government to underwrite research and development through our universities, what is your alternative model? Just stop funding R&D? Fall behind China and the rest of the world that does fund R&D? That is not a strategy for making America great. Just the opposite.”
If you don't want the federal government to underwrite research and development through our universities, what is your alternative model? Just stop funding R&D? Fall behind China and the rest of the world that does fund R&D? That is not a strategy for making America great. Just…
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) May 28, 2025
Conservative research fellow Greg R. Lawson of The Buckeye Institute in Ohio replied to McFaul: “We should fund basic R&D & higher than we have been since Reagan, that was a key to our Cold War victory over the Soviet Union & will be critical to any win in the Tech Cold War with China.
“BUT, we also need to stop the stupid politicization of research. We spend a lot on studies that are effectively unsound but promote elite driven concepts, DEI & structural racism paramount among them.”
[NOTE: Structural racism, the study of which Lawson laments, is an empirical condition that continues to affect society in vital areas including education and health care, where it impacts not only groups that are discriminated against but also society and the economy as a whole — with numerous deleterious effects ranging from obvious health issues to major financial costs. See information on the impacts of structural racism at the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health.]
We should fund basic R&D & higher than we have been since Reagan, that was a key to our Cold War victory over the Soviet Union & will be critical to any win in the Tech Cold War with China.
— Greg R. Lawson (@ConservaWonk) May 28, 2025
BUT, we also need to stop the stupid politicization of research. We spend a lot on…
Lawson, a graduate of The Ohio State University, added: “We need a ruthless meritocratic system of funding R&D, not a facsimile that uses the scientific method as a fig leaf for a faddish, typically Left-leaning socio-politcal [sic] agendas.
“To the degree Trump stops that & shifts the research incentives to merit, the current disruptions would be worth it in the long run. Of course, the multi-billion $ question is will that goal actually be accomplished or will it just be raw cuts with no underlying change?”
When someone replied to Lawson “I don’t think the universities are going to switch to a merit based system. Just look at them now,” he replied: “Then THAT, far more than what Trump is doing, will be America’s ritualistic self-inflicted innovation suicide.”
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