Trump Administration Overhauls Federal Research to Prioritize AI

The Trump administration has announced a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. federal research system through a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy report titled Science: A New Golden Age. The plan redirects a significant portion of the $200 billion annual federal research and development budget away from large universities and toward individual scientists, fellowships, and awards to reduce bureaucracy and bypass peer-review processes.

A central component of the strategy is the integration of artificial intelligence as a primary instrument of discovery. This is exemplified by the expansion of the Genesis Mission, which links supercomputers and AI models across national laboratories. The administration has set ambitious technical goals, including the deployment of a powerful quantum computer by 2028, the construction of 10 new large nuclear reactors by 2030, and the achievement of commercial fusion power by the mid-2030s.

These measures are framed as essential to maintaining technological leadership and combating competition from China, which the report identifies as a peer-level competitor in research spending. To align these efforts with administration priorities, the United States Office of Management and Budget is proposing rules that would grant political appointees more power over the granting process.