The Trump administration cut climate research funding to Princeton University on Tuesday, as declared by the Department of Commerce, which announced that as of June 30, it will stop providing $4 million in government funding to the university. Through this funding, Princeton’s Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System (CIMES) and other NOAA-affiliated research projects were supported. According to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the decision came after “a detailed, careful, and thorough review of the Department’s financial assistance programs against NOAA’s current program objectives.”

According to the government, these programs are no longer in line with the goals of the Trump administration or NOAA’s purpose. About the administration’s overarching objective to “streamline and reduce the cost and size of the Federal Government,” a statement said, “The Department of Commerce is delivering on that promise.”

Criticism and Scientific Pushback

As the Trump Administration cut climate research funding to Princeton, the agency claimed that the CIMES program contributed to “a phenomenon known as ‘climate anxiety,’ which has increased significantly among America’s youth,” by “promoting exaggerated and implausible climate threats.” According to Princeton’s website, CIMES has played a key role in developing oceanographic and climate models, in addition to supporting graduate and postdoctoral research.

The Advancing Prediction agreement and the Climate Risks and Interactive Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Predictability project are two more research agreements that have been disrupted. The former “suggests that the Earth will have a significant fluctuation in its water availability as a result of global warming,” according to the department. The department stated that the latter focused on climate-related hazards such as sea-level rise and altered precipitation patterns but added that “more targeted research efforts are addressing this issue,” including coastal flooding.

Princeton received $455 million in government funding in the fiscal year 2024. A portion of the funds, according to the Commerce Department, was used to support climate modeling and forecasting studies, which is no longer in line with the administration’s agenda.

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Political Context and Broader Scrutiny

The announcement coincides with increased scrutiny of educational institutions. The administration of President Trump has pulled funding from colleges accused of allowing anti-Israel protests and has investigated many institutions for alleged antisemitism after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

Future funding decisions will be evaluated “on an individualized basis to avoid wasteful governmental spending — whether they be to Princeton or any other recipient,” the Department of Commerce emphasized.

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