‘A Weird Way of Making America Great’: Trump NOAA Purge Targets Scientists Working on Key Climate Models
Hundreds of demonstrators protest against the Trump administration’s mass firings of U.S. government employees outside the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Spring, Maryland on March 3, 2025. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Layoffs by the Trump administration at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have reached the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), a small but important institute that is responsible for climate models the world relies on.
Kai-Yuan Cheng, an atmospheric scientist who was notified of his firing late last week, said he rushed to finish his work on severe storm forecasting on one hour’s notice.
“I worked to the last minute of my federal employment,” Cheng said, as Science reported. “I tried my best to wrap up my work before I lost access.”
Cheng and nine other GFDL employees were fired from the Princeton, New Jersey, research center, as part of a far-reaching round of layoffs announced by the Trump administration late last month.
Started in 1955, GFDL is responsible for some of the planet’s most highly regarded climate and weather models. They are relied upon for global heating projections, as well as weather forecasting in the United States.
Several of the workers who were fired were in charge of crucial projects, and it is likely that several GFDL projects — including a new type of atmospheric model — will face delays, as will more accurate regional climate predictions.
Tom Di Liberto, an NOAA climate scientist and public affairs specialist who was laid off, told the American Institute of Physics (AIP) that seven of the 25 employees at the Office of Communications had been fired. Additionally, 11 employees were fired from the Environmental Modeling Center.
“Some would say we were already falling behind some of our modeling, and by firing folks like this here, there’s no way you can catch up,” Di Liberto said in a press release from AIP. “It’s a weird way of making America great.” 03-05-25