Trump Administration's Campaign of Retribution Threatens Scientific Journals Not on Board with MAGA Science

Apr 19, 2025

The Trump administration’s campaign to bring universities to heel is now followed by legal threats against scientific journals, issued by interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Ed Martin—who is up for confirmation by the Senate, in case anyone wonders if they can do anything about this.

Science provides the context:

The Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia has sent multiple journal editors letters asserting their publications are “partisans in various scientific debates” and asking for responses to a variety of questions. Meanwhile, the Trump administration plans to cut funding for two open-access, peer-reviewed journals published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—Emerging Infectious Diseases(EID) and Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)—according to a leaked draft of an internal 2026 budget proposal for the Department of Health and Human Services.
The letter, first reported by MedPage Today, is signed by federal prosecutor Edward Martin Jr. A version addressed to the medical journal CHEST was circulated widely on social media yesterday and the journal confirmed its authenticity. Science has learned that another journal has received a nearly identical letter. …
The prosecutor’s letter makes reference to U.S. regulations, stating that journals have a “position for which they are advocating either due to advertisement (postal code) or sponsorship (under relevant fraud regulations).” It asks journal editors to respond to questions such as “How do you clearly articulate to the public when you have certain viewpoints that are influenced by your ongoing relations with supporters, funders, advertisers, and others?” and “Do you accept articles or essays from competing viewpoints?” Responses are expected by 2 May, it adds.
Martin has issued a series of letters on matters unrelated to publishing that Democrats have argued use the threat of legal action, including prosecution, to “intimidate government employees and chill the speech of private citizens.” Martin’s letter to journals touches on a common accusation leveled by people affiliated with the Trump administration, such as new National Institutes of Health Director Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, who has argued that journals (including Science) were biased against certain viewpoints during the COVID-19 pandemic. This claim has received pushback from journals.

It's hard to imagine what the administration is trying to accomplish by issuing vague legal threats against lung doctors—except that Donald Trump seems to blame mainstream science on Covid for his loss in the 2020 election. I am sure threatening doctors will prevent the next pandemic.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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