Trump Seems to Be Dismantling NOAA, Following the Blueprint of Project 2025
The Trump administration appears to be dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, which includes the National Weather Service that warns Americans about severe events like flooding, heatwaves, hurricanes, and excessive winds and dryness, which can lead to wildfires.
Multiple sources told the news outlet Axios, on condition of anonymity, that representatives of the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, were at the headquarters of NOAA in Silver Spring, Maryland, looking to access IT systems. Former NOAA deputy director Andrew Rosenberg who told CBS News that DOGE people walked past security like it didn’t apply to them. Former NOAA officials told CBS News that employees were informed the agency could lose half of its more than 12,000 staff and have its budget cut by 30 percent. DOGE was created with a mission to slash federal spending and is led by billionaire Elon Musk.
According to The Hill, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) cited reports that career staff at NOAA had been locked out. Democratic Party lawmakers said Musk and DOGE agents had wreaked havoc on the agency, which operates the National Weather Service and the country’s two hurricane centers. Representative Bruce Westerman (D-Ar.), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, called for an investigation into what Musk and DOGE were doing at the agency.
In addition, the Washington Post reported that NOAA employees, including those at the National Marine Fisheries Service, among others, had been ordered to cease communicating with foreign nationals, including those who work with the U.S. government. NOAA Fisheries stewards the nation's ocean resources and seafood.
NOAA was established in 1970 and, among its many operations, it observes climate change. The goal to destroy the agency as it exists was promised in “Project 2025”—the Republican outline for the first 180 days of the new presidency published by the Heritage Foundation. Project 2025 said that various offices inside NOAA had “become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, was harmful to future U.S. prosperity.” The plan goes further to state that NOAA should be dismantled and many of its functions privatized, sent to other agencies, or placed under the control of states.
Last week, Trump nominated Neil Jacobs to head NOAA. Jacobs was reprimanded by the agency for his involvement in what is now referred to as “Sharpiegate.” In 2019, during his first term, Trump infamously used a marker to increase the path of Hurricane Dorian into Alabama. Jacobs penned a statement backing up the doctored image.
Chris Bianchi, a local television meteorologist in Denver, Colorado, told 9News that dismantling NOAA is like a plane losing its pilot. He said the National Weather Service is the gold standard for forecasting and without their meteorologists, data, equipment, and models, it would be a free-for-all of incorrect and unsafe information.
Elon Musk Moves to Shutter Agency Investigating Him
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act into law and created the U.S. Agency for International Development known as USAID. Since its inception, the agency has helped to provide clean water, health programs, and economic development in more than 100 countries. However, its storied history is potentially coming to an abrupt end, with the White House issuing a statement calling the agency’s work wasteful and not in line with what they say are American values. (Trump’s own family embraced USAID’s mission with both Melania and Ivanka making trips to African countries to showcase the agency’s work.)
As stated on USAID.gov, on February 3, nearly all personnel but a handful were placed on administrative leave; however, on February 7, a federal judge temporarily paused that action, siding with unions representing the employees.
Elon Musk, Trump’s cost-cutting advisor and leader of DOGE, decried USAID as a criminal organization and called it a “scam” and “radical-left political psy-op.” He boasted about “feeding USAID into the wood chipper"—despite the agency’s funding being less than one percent of the federal budget. Critics of the destruction of USAID argue that the U.S. got a lot for that meager sum, starting with soft power—goodwill and influence with developing countries who now might turn to our adversaries for support.
Also, much of USAID’s budget back flows to American businesses, such as farmers and ranchers, who sell about $2 billion a year in food aid. The Food for Peace program, which started in Kansas with a mission to fight world hunger using American agricultural surplus, has likely been shuttered. Nick Levendofsky, executive director of the Kansas Farmers Union, told the Washington Post that farmers are already struggling with low prices, rising costs, and the potential impacts of tariffs.
Levendofsky also told WBUR that Musk might have targeted USAID because he was under investigation by the agency’s Inspector General for the Starlink satellite terminals he provided to the government of Ukraine. As The New Republic reports, over the last four years, Musk has received $1 million from USAID to bring Starlink to Zimbabwe and South Africa, according to federal contract records obtained by Forbes.
Meanwhile, there’s enormous potential harm to millions of people globally who lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene—collectively known as WASH—and who rely on U.S. humanitarian aid. As Circle of Blue reports, that assistance is in the long term interest of the U.S. by reducing food and water insecurity, which can create conflict and cross-border migration. USAID and its partners also create stability around the globe by helping countries monitor ecosystem health, increase agricultural productivity, and build resilience to climate change.
In addition, the agency is a watchdog for global health crises. Andrew Natsios, who ran USAID under President George W. Bush, said that news this week of an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, was reported by none other than a USAID mission. Natsios, a lifelong conservative Republican, told Politico that Trump’s move to shutter USAID is both “illegal” and “outrageous.” According to the Congressional Research Service, a president cannot legally abolish USAID. Only Congress can—if its members are willing to act.