From the looks of things, Neil deGrasse Tyson has had more than his fill of the Trump administration. On Sunday morning, Tyson directed a furious tweetstorm at Donald Trump’s proposed budget, following a week in which controversial cuts were first revealed. The kinds of cuts which, according to Tyson, would be a fast track to a less safe, less healthy, and less smart United States of America.
Specifically, Tyson claimed America would be made “weak again,” “sick again,” and “stupid” by the direction Trump’s budget would take it.
The fastest way to Make a America Weak Again: Cut science funds to our agencies that support it.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 19, 2017
The fastest way to Make America Sick Again: Cut funding to the National Institutes of Health
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 19, 2017
The fastest way to Make America Stupid: Cut funds to programs that support education.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 19, 2017
The fastest way to thwart Earth's life-support systems for us all: Turn EPA into EDA — the Environmental Destruction Agency.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 19, 2017
The fastest way to melt glaciers & flood the World's coastal cities: Ignore scientists and do nothing to stem the rise of CO2
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 19, 2017
We can all imagine a land that provides no support for Art. But is that a place you’d want to Live? To Visit? To Play?
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 19, 2017
The very best way to support and feed your delusions: Surround yourself with people whose world views match yours exactly.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 19, 2017
We all want to Make America Great Again. But that won't happen until we first Make America Smart Again.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 19, 2017
The new Trump budget includes heavy slashes to federal funding for the arts and sciences, with the National Endowment for the Arts zeroed out and the Environmental Protection Agency facing a 31 percent cut. This comes at a time when scientists and researchers are more concerned than ever by the pace of climate change, an issue Tyson clearly prioritizes among the most important facing all of humanity.
This isn’t the first time Tyson has waded into political criticism and commentary on his Twitter account. A celebrity astrophysicist and host of the Cosmos reboot that aired in 2014, he’s voiced some of his views about American life and the world before, albeit through a scientific lens.
Sometimes, his political statements have won him praise on social media, while other times he’s been criticized for being a little too joyless with his tweets. Like when he dryly criticizes science-fiction movies for any traces of unreality, or when he mused about creating a new country called Rationalia, where “all policy shall be based on weight of evidence.” In the midst of the ongoing battle over Trump’s controversial proposed budget, however, Tyson’s political tweetstorm will probably have its fair share of supporters.