Trump Assault on Science Gets Literal as the NSF Is Kicked Out of Its Headquarters

By Dave Levitan | June 25, 2025 | 8:44am

Photo by Antony-22/Wikimedia Commons

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Trump Assault on Science Gets Literal as the NSF Is Kicked Out of Its Headquarters

There’s one part Trump administration chaos and one part Trump administration hostility to science in this one: the National Science Foundation is apparently getting unceremoniously ousted from its building. Like, the one where all the people work.

As first reported on Tuesday evening by journalist Dan Garisto, apparently the Department of Housing and Urban Development is just going to kind of take it? More or less? HUD Secretary Scott Turner and Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin plan to hold a press conference on Wednesday morning announcing the move/invasion. The American Federation of Federal Employees, the largest union representing federal workers, issued a statement saying they only learned of this on Tuesday afternoon, and decried the apparent displacement of the more than 1,800 NSF employees many of whom only recently were forced to relocate in order to satisfy arbitrary administration return-to-work orders.

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The chaos part of this is that HUD — not exactly a priority for Donald Trump, itself subject to a proposed $33 billion in cuts — apparently gets to just sort of wander across the river, abandoning its aging brutalist National Mall headquarters in favor of the shiny Alexandria NSF offices completed in 2017. Because… why, exactly?

The anti-science part is obvious. Along with NIH, NSF is one of the biggest funders of scientific research in the country, and the world, and, well, we just can’t have that, can we? Trump’s request included an absolute gutting of NSF, to the tune of 56 percent of its $9 billion budget. That would send grant approval rates plummeting toward seven percent and contribute to the overall degradation of the scientific enterprise in the US. Who needs a nice building after all that?

Per the AFGE statement and Garisto, HUD Secretary Turner had some interesting requests as part of the deal. They included a dedicated suite on the building’s 19th floor, reserved parking space for his five (5) cars, a dedicated elevator, and hosting his executive assistants on the floor below his penthouse.

There is not, as of yet, an obvious relocation plan for whatever is left of the NSF. “While Secretary Turner and his staff are busy enjoying private dining and a custom gym, NSF employees are being displaced with no plan, no communication, and no respect,” the AFGE statement said. “This kind of let-them-eat-cake approach to government is absurd. At a time when they claim to be cutting government waste, it is unbelievable that government funding is being redirected to build a palace-like office for the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The hypocrisy is truly dumbfounding.”