Macron hits Trump’s funding cuts to universities, woos US scientists

Europe is looking to attract America’s academic researchers as President Trump cuts funding to multiple top U.S. universities and wages war against international professors and students.

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Monday that the Sorbonne University is going to invest millions of dollars to lure scientists to its institutions.

The program, called “Choose Europe for Science,” will invest 500 million euros, or $566 million, to “help support the best and the brightest researchers and scientists from Europe and around the world” from 2025-27.

“Nobody could imagine a few years ago that one of the great democracies of the world would eliminate research programs on the pretext that the word ‘diversity’ appeared in its program,” Macron said at the announcement, according to a translation provided by a French official.

While he did not directly call out the U.S., the Department of Education under Trump has been canceling contracts with universities due to alleged focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion in the programs.

Trump has also cut off billions of dollars in research funding from the country’s top universities, including Harvard and Princeton, and is calling for Harvard’s tax-exempt status to be revoked.

Hundreds of international students and faculty have also seen their visas revoked since the start of the Trump administration.

“What a gigantic miscalculation!” von der Leyen said, according to the Times, regarding an environment where “fundamental, free and open research is questioned.”

Without calling out the leaders by name, the White House said the U.S. “is by far the largest funder of scientific research and is home to the world’s largest ecosystem for innovation and research.”

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in response that “The Trump administration spending its first few months to review the previous administration’s projects, identify waste, and realign our research spending to the suit the priorities of the American people is not going to upend America’s innovative dominance.”

—Updated at 2:50 a.m. EDT