Trump's gold standard science is harming US science and health

On 29 May 2026, the US White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposed a rule that directs political appointees to require adherence with “gold standard science” in the awarding of federal grants, including research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation.1 This process, if finalised, would permit political appointees - officials placed in senior leadership or policy roles through a political appointment process, such as the senate confirmed NIH director - to override or second guess longstanding merit based review processes that historically determined most grant awards.2At first glance, requiring agencies to rely on gold standard science sounds as if it would constrain political discretion and tether government decisions more closely to scientific evidence. But over the past year, the Trump administration has generally invoked that phrase not as a neutral standard for scientific rigour but as a rationale for political...