Will Trumpism drive a brain drain in the US?

One problem confronting the Trump agenda is that they treat the US like a closed system. That’s a problem for tariffs, since there are plenty of other markets for foreign goods besides the US. 

And it’s a problem for the recruitment and retention of the world’s finest minds. Until now, US universities were a magnet for the world’s best students and faculty, but the Trump Administrations politically motivated efforts to dismantle biomedical research and defund leading research universities is simply an invitation for an American brain drain:

“Foreign governments are trying to lure US scientists to move abroad as the Trump administration roils the research world with funding cuts and blacklists of some fields.

 

“Higher education leaders said scientists in Massachusetts are already receiving overtures, prompting Governor Maura Healey to raise the alarm about a potential brain drain from research institutions that form the backbone of the state’s economy.

 

“Countries in the Middle East and Europe, as well as China are telling Massachusetts scientists, “We’ll give you a lab, we’ll give you staff,” Healey said at a press conference Monday at Boston Children’s Hospital.

 

“We’re giving away assets to other countries instead of training them, growing them, supporting them here,” she said.”

Personally, I would never have wanted to trade my personal freedom for research funding in China. But Western nations like France, Norway and Australia also see Trump’s assault on academic research as “a once-in-a-century brain gain opportunity.” Trump is providing the push by starving American research, and nations seeking to grow their research assets are providing the pull.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/19/metro/china-foreign-governments-recruit-massachusetts-scientists-trump-cuts/