Yann LeCun warns that White House policy changes (reported by The Guardian) would…

Brief

Yann LeCun warns that White House policy changes (reported by The Guardian) would require Trump-appointed officials to vet every public research grant to universities and NGOs for fidelity to "American values" as defined by the president, terminating peer-reviewed meritocracy and likening the shift from Vannevar Bush's model to Trofim Lysenko–style politicization of science.

Political appointees vetting science funding?
Trump is doing to science what the Right accused previous administrations of doing.
But in previous administrations, there was no political control of research grant approvals.
Grant proposals were evaluated through peer review: the research community decided which proposals had merit.

Bye-bye Vannevar Bush, hello Trofim Lysenko.
Bye-bye meritocracy, hello political favoritism.

From The Guardian: "A set of sweeping policy changes unveiled by the White House would leave officials appointed by Donald Trump vetting every public grant issued to universities and nongovernmental organizations on the basis of their fidelity to “American values”, as defined by the president, triggering widespread concern."