President Donald Trump ordered a probe over the weekend as he said federal judges have been unduly influenced by a taxpayer-funded science organization pushing “discredited” climate activism.
Trump lambasted the National Academy of Sciences on Sunday as he said guidebooks produced by the organization had been used to hand massive legal wins to climate activists and created “huge losses” for the country. The academy, which has received tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, has a history of publishing research closely linked to climate activists.
“The National Academy of Sciences has historically published analytical Scientific Manuals expressly for our Federal Judiciary,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Of course, the Academy has been run by Radical Left Dumocrats who, it turns out, published fraudulent, biased, and misleading Manuals on Climate Change. These bogus Manuals were used by Judges to decide massive ‘Climate Change’ Cases, and have created huge losses across our Country.”
Trump added that he asked federal officials to review the details around what role manuals published by the academy had on the judiciary.
“These Manuals have been totally DISCREDITED. Our Nation’s Federal Judges deserve Facts and Science, not Political Fraud and False Science on Climate. With this TRUTH, I hereby order Federal Suspension and Debarment Officials to review this conduct,” Trump said. “Our Taxpayers should not be funding Climate Fraud, and Judges should never have relied upon it.”
The National Academy of Sciences did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s post comes as the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments this year in a case that will focus on whether federal law preempts state-level claims for supposed injuries caused by “the effects of interstate and international greenhouse-gas emissions on the global climate.” The case centers on a lawsuit by the city of Boulder, Colorado, that alleges multiple oil companies have knowingly caused harm.
In recent months, the National Academy of Sciences has frequently faced criticism from Republican officials who argue it is pushing biased science. The claims stem from a report released earlier this month on “attribution science,” or the argument that human activity can directly impact frequency and severity of extreme weather. Additionally, its recent “Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence: Fourth Edition” contains a chapter on climate science authored in part by two leftist activists who have advocated ending the use of fossil fuels.
The Federal Judicial Center, which co-produced the manual, removed the climate-focused chapter from its version earlier this year after scrutiny from Republican officials.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen argued that the manual “was designed to influence judges in multi-billion-dollar climate cases, was funded by climate litigation funders, was written by academics with little relevant scientific expertise and documented financial and institutional ties to climate litigation advocacy.”
The Daily Wire reported in March that over a dozen Republican attorneys general asked the Departments of Energy, War, and Transportation to cut funding to the National Academies.
In 2024, the National Academies received $84 million in contracts or grants from the Department of Transportation, $7 million from the Department of Energy, and $33 million from the Department of War.
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