In December 2025, the Trump administration announced plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), one of the world’s most critical institutions for weather, climate, and atmospheric science. The decision, revealed publicly without warning to NCAR leadership, was justified by the White House as an effort to eliminate what it called “climate alarmism.” But scientists, lawmakers, and observers across the political spectrum argue the move is far less about science—and far more about politics.

NCAR, founded in 1960 and funded by the National Science Foundation, serves as the backbone of U.S. atmospheric research. It operates elite supercomputers, develops the world’s most widely used weather and climate models, pioneered lifesaving aviation wind-shear detection, revolutionized hurricane forecasting with GPS drop ...