The Atlantic
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Defund Science, Distort Culture, Mock Education
Posted
January 23, 2026
Views
11,536
Likes
570
Comments
139
Engagement
6.15%
January 23, 2026
11,536
570
139
6.15%
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27:17Now PlayingJoan Brugge has worked for nearly 50 years as a cancer scientist, studying the earliest signs that someone might become sick. Then the Trump administration canceled her lab’s funding. The administration’s attacks on medicine, culture, and education—which include funding cuts and verbal threats—are about more than just budgeting and bravado. Our host, Anne Applebaum, speaks with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, who argues that this effort is part of a larger autocratic project to maintain power.
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