Advertisement
Parsec

Neil deGrasse Tyson torches Trump’s budget with a testy tweetstorm

Tyson landed a good uppercut or two.

Photo of Chris Tognotti

Chris Tognotti

Neil deGrasse Tyson tweets

From the looks of things, Neil deGrasse Tyson has had more than his fill of the Trump administration. On Sunday morning, Tyson directed a furious tweetstorm at Donald Trump’s proposed budget, following a week in which controversial cuts were first revealed. The kinds of cuts which, according to Tyson, would be a fast track to a less safe, less healthy, and less smart United States of America.

Featured Video

Specifically, Tyson claimed America would be made “weak again,” “sick again,” and “stupid” by the direction Trump’s budget would take it.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The new Trump budget includes heavy slashes to federal funding for the arts and sciences, with the National Endowment for the Arts zeroed out and the Environmental Protection Agency facing a 31 percent cut. This comes at a time when scientists and researchers are more concerned than ever by the pace of climate change, an issue Tyson clearly prioritizes among the most important facing all of humanity.

This isn’t the first time Tyson has waded into political criticism and commentary on his Twitter account. A celebrity astrophysicist and host of the Cosmos reboot that aired in 2014, he’s voiced some of his views about American life and the world before, albeit through a scientific lens.

Advertisement

Sometimes, his political statements have won him praise on social media, while other times he’s been criticized for being a little too joyless with his tweets. Like when he dryly criticizes science-fiction movies for any traces of unreality, or when he mused about creating a new country called Rationalia, where “all policy shall be based on weight of evidence.” In the midst of the ongoing battle over Trump’s controversial proposed budget, however, Tyson’s political tweetstorm will probably have its fair share of supporters.

 
The Daily Dot