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Today, it has become clear that former President Donald Trump will return to office for a second term, after a close and hard-fought election.
There’s no denying it: this is a very difficult outcome for us and for everyone who cares about a safe and sustainable future. There’s every reason to expect that a second Trump administration will pose a risk to our values and priorities at least as severe as the first term, if not more.
President-elect Trump’s path to the White House has been an unprecedented campaign of disinformation, threats, divisive language, and dangerous policy promises. It’s understandable to look ahead to the next four years with serious worry—but while we shouldn’t underestimate the risk, we can’t afford to despair. The challenges the planet faces are too urgent for complacency or cynicism.
Here at the Union of Concerned Scientists, we knew a second Trump term was a real possibility, and we’ve prepared for the challenges ahead. There’s hope in our unique approach: by combining science-backed analysis with grassroots advocacy, UCS has a 50-plus year track record of success, regardless of who’s in the White House.
We—and our supporters across the country—have a vital role to play in defending the progress we’ve made at the federal level, advancing our goals at the state level, and exposing and pushing back against the abuses that are likely to come. We’re clear about the threats we face but we must move forward with hope and determination.
Our priorities for the next year and beyond include:
- Launching a new national campaign to defend science in government decision-making from day one. When science is sidelined, people get hurt. With your help we will work to limit political attacks on government scientists and experts, stop suppression of scientific research, fight unqualified science agency nominations, and defend against other anti-science action in the Project 2025 agenda.
- Protecting democracy, state by state. This election was marred by efforts to undermine the right to vote—through voter-roll purges, restrictive laws, and rampant disinformation. We will continue to work and expand our Election Science Task Force and push to improve free and fair elections at the state level through science-based best practices, including fair representation, better ballot design, and more transparent election data.
- Safeguarding and advancing clean energy and climate-safe infrastructure. The investments made in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are having an impact—creating jobs and changing the trajectory of the energy economy in red, blue, and purple states. We have an opportunity to work across the partisan divide in Congress and the states to defend those vital investments and make sure the path toward a cleaner, safer future stays in place. And we are already set up and working in states across the country to forge more ambitious policies to cut pollution, advance equity, and build a thriving future—we can and will press on.
- Holding corporate bad actors accountable. Through our Science Hub for Climate Litigation, we’re providing research and expertise to inform legal cases in the United States and around the world that seek to hold Chevron, ExxonMobil, and other powerful fossil fuel companies and their allied organizations accountable for fraud and for climate damages.
- Relentlessly pushing for long-term solutions that protect science. Wewill work to advance federal legislation that permanently establishes scientific integrity principles and practices across the federal government, prevents excessive and undue influence of corporate special interests, and undoes the damage caused by recent Supreme Court decisions that undermine the ability of federal agencies to implement equitable science-based policies.
To learn more, you can read this series of blog posts from our team laying out the challenges ahead and the strategies we’re putting in place to confront them.
- A Second Trump Administration Threatens an Assault on Climate, Energy, and Justice Priorities by Chitra Kumar, managing director of the Climate and Energy program.
- A Path Forward for Science and Democracy by Jennifer Jones, program director of the Center for Science & Democracy.
- It’s an Unpleasant Déjà Vu for Clean Transportation Advocates by Don Anair, deputy director and research director of the Clean Transportation program.
- What a Second Trump Administration Means for Food and Farms by Karen Perry Stillerman, deputy director of the Food and Environment program.
- Can Advocates Reduce Nuclear Dangers and Advance Nuclear Justice Under a Trump Administration? by Tara Drozdenko, director of the Global Security program.
- States Must Step Up by Juliet Christian-Smith, Western States regional director.
In the remaining months of the Biden administration, we’ll keep fighting for progress—and after the inauguration we’ll prioritize defending the investments and policies we’ve worked so hard to implement.
We’ll defend USDA’s efforts to fund conservation and fulfill their commitment to end discrimination in the agriculture sector. We’ll fight to protect investments in clean transportation infrastructure, support state efforts to fill in the gaps that will emerge at the federal level, and keep the spotlight on industry actors trying to prevent the transformation of our transportation system. And we’ll pass the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act at home and work across civil society and national borders to block the resumption of nuclear testing and reduce the risk of nuclear war.
We know that it will be difficult. The Trump agenda is a threat to democracy, to equity and justice, to public health and the climate. We must work tirelessly to counter these threats—and side by side with a broad coalition of allies. We will look beyond this election cycle to build power in the long term. And with your support, we will.
