In the first week of his second term, US president Donald Trump has thrown the country’s scientific apparatus into chaos, while at the same time anointing a new tech oligarchy. With a blitz of executive orders, he’s set the US on a path that will derail climate goals, biomedical research and pandemic readiness.

On 20 January, the first day of his presidency, Trump declared a “national energy emergency” and proposed expanding fossil fuel production on federal land, including a controversial move to open Alaska’s Arctic National…