Trump Is Dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research Because It Studies Climate
On December 17, 2025, Russ Vought announced that Trump’s administration would “break up” the National Center for Atmospheric Research. His reason? NCAR is “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
NCAR has existed since 1960. Sixty-five years of atmospheric science research. Sixty-five years of breakthroughs in weather prediction and climate understanding. Sixty-five years of work that saves lives, protects property, and strengthens national security.
Trump’s dismantling it because it studies climate change.
Let’s be clear about what NCAR actually does. It employs 830 people in Boulder, Colorado. It develops tools used by 1,500 researchers from over 500 universities across the country. It created the Weather Research and Forecasting Model used worldwide to predict hurricanes, thunderstorms, and extreme weather events.
NCAR invented dropsondes—those probes dropped from planes into hurricanes to measure their strength. NCAR developed wind shear warning systems for aviation that have saved countless lives since the 1990s. NCAR created the Community Earth System Model that scientists use to understand extreme cold outbreaks, like the 2021 event that killed hundreds and destroyed Texas’s electrical grid.
This isn’t “climate alarmism.” This is science that protects Americans.
But Trump’s administration calls studying the atmosphere “wasteful.” They’re closing NCAR’s headquarters. They’re transferring its supercomputing center to “an unspecified third party.” They’re dismantling research teams that have worked together for decades.
The National Science Foundation issued a letter asking for proposals on how to restructure NCAR. That letter mentioned support for weather-related programs. But climate research? Not mentioned. The word “climate” didn’t appear once.
That’s intentional. They’re keeping the parts that forecast tomorrow’s weather and killing everything that studies long-term climate patterns. Because acknowledging climate change threatens fossil fuel profits.
Colorado’s senators tried to protect NCAR’s funding. They proposed an amendment to a spending bill. The Senate voted it down 85-14 in January. Congress chose to let NCAR be dismantled.
Scientists across the country are horrified. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe called NCAR “our global mothership” and said dismantling it is “like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.”
Meteorologist Daniel Swain said NCAR “has played a greater cumulative role in advancing weather prediction and atmospheric modeling than perhaps any other single entity in the world.”
Defense agencies rely on NCAR for mission-critical environmental intelligence. Breaking it apart creates gaps in weather forecasting that increase operational risk for military missions. You’d think Republicans who claim to care about national security would oppose this. They don’t.
Since 1980, weather disasters have cost America thousands of lives and over $3 trillion. In 2025 alone, disasters killed nearly 300 people and caused $115 billion in damages. A 2010 National Academies study found that weather forecasts deliver about $31.5 billion in annual economic benefits.
NCAR makes those forecasts possible. And Trump’s destroying it.
Some people think this is retaliation against Colorado. Trump issued a symbolic pardon for Tina Peters, a convicted election denier serving nine years for illegally accessing voting machines. Colorado Governor Jared Polis refused to honor it because presidential pardons don’t apply to state crimes.
The day before announcing NCAR’s dismantling, Trump’s administration canceled $109 million in Colorado transportation grants. Coincidence? Unlikely.
But whether it’s retaliation or ideological warfare against climate science doesn’t matter. The result is the same: America loses its premier atmospheric research center because Trump and his administration can’t tolerate scientists studying climate change.
This is what authoritarians do. They silence science that contradicts their agenda. They defund research that threatens their donors. They dismantle institutions that provide evidence they don’t like.
NCAR doesn’t do politics. It does science. It measures atmospheric conditions, runs climate models, develops forecasting tools, and publishes peer-reviewed research. The atmosphere doesn’t have a voter registration card. It doesn’t care about ideology.
But Trump does. And he’s willing to sacrifice American lives, property, and scientific leadership to wage war on climate science.
Once you break something like NCAR—teams that have worked together for decades, infrastructure built over 65 years—you can’t easily rebuild it. The knowledge is lost. The continuity is destroyed. The scientific progress stops.
That’s the goal. Stop the science. Kill the research. Silence the scientists who study climate change.
Still think he puts America first?
Sources:
NPR: “Trump plans to break up NCAR, a critical climate and weather research center”
CNN: “Trump admin is pulling supercomputers out of NCAR weather research center”
PBS NewsHour: “White House pushes to dismantle leading climate and weather research center”