Democrats are throwing what amounts to a middle school science fair in the halls of Congress, hoping to embarrass President Trump for axing wasteful spending at bloated agencies like the NIH, USAID, and NSF. The event, titled “The Things We’ll Never Know: A Science Fair of Canceled Grants,” featured scientists showing off posters about research Trump cut, from climate models to fruit-fly mating studies, in a bid to portray the administration as anti-science.

What they didn’t mention? Many of these grants wasted billions on questionable overseas projects, like the USAID’s shipment of viral samples to the Wuhan Institute of Virology with zero meaningful oversight—samples that could have been turned into bioweapons by a Chinese lab that’s refused to cooperate with U.S. officials.

Since early 2025, the Trump administration has slashed nearly $8.7 billion in NIH grants and \$1.5 billion from the National Science Foundation, part of a broader effort to rein in the federal government and redirect taxpayer dollars away from what it sees as junk science and bureaucratic slush funds. These cuts align with Trump’s pledge to shrink the federal workforce, cut waste, and focus on real national priorities like border security and public safety.

While Democrats try to spin their “science fair” as a fight for innovation, many Americans see it as a tantrum over losing their taxpayer-funded playground. The reality is that much of this spending was tied up in low-value studies or boondoggle programs that did little to improve American lives while burning through billions.

The left’s stunt underscores how out of touch they are with Americans who are more concerned with inflation, violent crime, and border chaos than funding another endless series of studies on mouse stress levels or subsidizing foreign labs. As Democrats desperately try to turn budget cuts into a culture war over “believing in science,” Trump’s team sees it as a win for taxpayers.

If Democrats want to keep throwing tantrums with papier-mâché volcanoes in Congress, they’re free to do so. But it’s unlikely to change the fact that most Americans are ready to see bloated federal spending come to an end—and that includes billions in grants that never should have been funded in the first place.