Among the many uncertainties related to the election of Donald Trump is the fate of the National Institutes of Health, the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. In fiscal year 2016 it had a budget of $32 billion.
Trump has promised voters he will cut federal spending, and last year he expressed a negative opinion about the NIH to conservative radio host Michael Savage, saying, “I hear so much about the NIH, and it's terrible.” But in response to a question about research from ScienceDebate.org, Trump said that scientific advances “require long-term investment.”
