Just so we’re clear…

Anyone who might have assumed that Donald Trump would work hard to promote scientific excellence now has at least two new reasons to rethink that assumption:

(1) Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. RFK’s sins against science constitute a mile-long list. Anybody who really cares about scientific rigor would nominate someone whose track record and judgment are respected by scientists.

(2) Trump’s executive order stating that there are exactly two and only two biological sexes. Not only is this a cruel erasure of people, it’s wrong on the biology. Not wrong in the sense of “new research is suggesting that things are more complicated than we thought,” but wrong in the sense of “in direct opposition to facts that have been in textbooks for decades.” Any sophomore who has taken my Human Anatomy or Human Physiology courses (from which the slide below is taken) has more than enough information to recognize that executive order as wrong on the biology.

It’s shameful that Trump’s plan to “make America great again” does not prioritize great science.