Why America Is Losing Its Minds

Trump is draining the American brain.

A new initiative, led by the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs of Canada program, seeks to recruit top researchers to Canadian universities. Of their first cohort of 64 researchers, 48 are from the U.S., including three from Harvard. This is part of the Canadian government’s $1.2 billion investment in luring academics and researchers from the U.S. and other countries to relocate their research enterprises to Canada.

The move is well timed. The U.S. research environment has been thrown into chaos as the Trump administration has attempted to cut funds, penalize schools, and politicize federal R&D grants.

And Canada’s not alone. At least nine other countries have developed their own initiatives to attract American academics. French President Emmanuel Macron pledged $113 million to draw researchers from the U.S. Individual institutions in France have also put up their own money. The Spanish government announced that they were budgeting an additional €45 million to entice scientists “despised or undervalued by the Trump administration.”

Even as the Trump administration has repeatedly lost in court and been checked by Congress on federal research funding, the stream of persistent, rapid-fire, and legally dubious attacks has begun to shake loose America’s globally esteemed research apparatus.

Uncertainty is anathema to scientific research. By generating deep uncertainty about the future of the research funding landscape, Trump has pushed academics to seek greener pastures.

A Nature poll found in March 2025 that over 75 percent of respondents were considering leaving the United States because of disruptions to scientific research. Further, a Nature analysis found that U.S. scientists submitted 32 percent more job applications abroad between January and March 2025 than in the same period the prior year.

These feelings are intensified among early career scientists such as Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows, who have borne the brunt of the funding cuts and may be more mobile than established researchers. In general, researchers are motivated by opportunities that provide the most capital for their research, which often indicates accompanying job stability. While tenure-track faculty may have enough job stability to weather the chaos, those early in their research careers may be forced to leave.

Beyond academics leaving, many are simply not arriving in the first place. Many promising graduate students, postdocs, and faculty are forgoing a move to the United States. Applications to U.S. jobs from Chinese and European researchers have plunged, according to the Association of American Universities. Common App reports a 10 percent decrease in international applications to American undergraduate programs in the 2025-26 cycle compared to the previous year.

We worry, too, that academics leaving the country will only perpetuate a domestic political climate hostile to their very missions.

A balance must be struck. Much of the important research fugitive scientists are doing is so valuable it’s worth continuing elsewhere. Nevertheless, solving the root of the problem — the misinformation and repression fueling Trumpism — also requires cultivating future researchers and leaders who know better.

As such, we think there have been few times more important to be an expert, educator, and mentor than in America today. Some must stay to pass their knowledge on and inspire confidence in younger generations.

The academic forecast may be bleak. But failing to weather the storm would deliver a victory to Trump.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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