Science is under attack in the US. The new administration is terminating existing grants, preventing the review of new grant applications, and threatening to cut the “indirect costs” paid to universities for research. It is also firing staff at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, reversing efforts to make the scientific workforce more diverse and inclusive, pulling out of international bodies such as the World Health Organisation, and seeking to exert greater control over universities by threatening to withdraw federal funding for research.