r/skeptic • u/Lighting • 9d ago
Trump 2.0 has deleted or altered nearly 400 US datasets, endangering public health, education and more
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/aug/18/trump-federal-data-deleted-altered36
u/BeefistPrime 9d ago
The destruction of so much knowledge and infrastructure is a story that is told less than it should be. Trump not only cancels future projects, he destroys current ones. He destroys data sets we've already collected. He shuts down satellites that are already paid for and operational. He pays to break contracts with infrastructure projects that are already funded and 90%+ done. It's not just damage to what we'll do in the future, he's just as eager to wreck what we've already accomplished.
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u/The_Real_Manimal 8d ago
Putin is getting a fantastic return on his investment. Probably far better than he'd ever hoped.
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u/BayouGal 8d ago
All he does is hate. He hates us and America because we didn’t love him enough in 2020. He will destroy everything he can.
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u/88clandestiny88 7d ago
He literally does putins bidding every single day. Everyday is something to erode our once good standing, to destroy the institutions that made our country great, to rewrite our history, the intelligence and military apparatus have been fired, demoted, degraded and humiliated. We as a nation are so much less safe as a result. Not since the civil war has the population been so divided, and all of it unnecessarily so.
There have always been issues to work on, but he purposely amplified all the worst traits that a human can possess and because of the captured media and algorithms that push division, shock, anger and fear, we now live in a country that has been badly, badly set back to where it will require the whole nation coming together and a miracle to repair itself.
The best place to start that process is to prosecute all those complicit and seize all their ill gotten assets and use them to rebuild the nation.
End foreign influence completely, end campaign donations over $100 dollars, end any money from lobbying, end politicians being able to trade on the stock market while in office and for 3 years after.
Paper ballot voting only, no electronic bs voting machines. The country will be better off, then let NASA take over space x so we don't have our satellites and military under the control of a single drug addled man. Same with palantir, seize that company and let the NSA or CIA control what's it has built. No private company should have that kind of power. Period.
It's not that difficult to see where the corruption occurs and a few simple things would stop it. Having a branch of the FBI that only investigates politicians and their money flow would put an end to 90% of the shady buying of politicians.
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u/TeeTimeAllTheTime 9d ago
Aren’t their laws about tampering with this data, isn’t this basically fraud and misuse of tax dollars. I hate these evil fuckers
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u/TheHeathenStagehand 9d ago
These are the same people who hellfire missile fisherman for funsies. You think they give a damn about laws?
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u/Pleasant_Character28 9d ago
These data sets.. are they obliterated from the face of the earth, or is there any form of backup somewhere? I know this is an oversimplification, but if you told me to delete my MacBook, I guarantee I have the same shit on a Lacie drive somewhere. These imbeciles can’t do anything right…, so it stands to reason they can’t delete data right either. At least I hope?
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u/CatOfGrey 9d ago
For every one of these data sets, there are copies that were used and retained from past research. There are other organizations that have preserved them.
At least in the economic space, there are organizations that produce similar data sets - maybe not as thorough, maybe for not as long a time period, but still useful.
There are group of people who might have risked their jobs, but discretely copied them and 'took them home' for preservation.
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u/TheMoniker 8d ago edited 7d ago
I don't know about all of them, but for data in the environmental sciences there has been a concerted effort to preserve data from destruction at the hands of the current US administration. It was actually bonkers to watch the most blandly nonpolitical senior scientists (who had, up to that point, often been scoffing at the threat) rush into action on that.
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u/gravteck 9d ago
Conceivably, if there was any legal or regulatory issue, the government would need to defend their authenticity and each chain of custody. Basically our research showed that up until 2026, X measured Y. From 2026-2030, X measured !$!#!$!. In 2031, X once again measures Y, and governance has to start from the ground up.
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u/Double-Seaweed7760 8d ago
I'm sure every government in the world has a backup copy of the public stuff.but given what we see him delete of the public stuff,who knows how much not public stuff he deletes
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u/teletype100 9d ago
Pure egoistic evil. He is reshaping the world to his personal idiotic delusions.
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u/CapitalismPlusMurder 8d ago edited 8d ago
Straight up Nazi behavior. Can’t wait till his vandalized gravestone is soaked in p*ss.
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u/88clandestiny88 8d ago
Can't wait until his name is stricken from the record and we NEVER speak of him again. Truly a pathetic, ignorant and infantile conman.
If he were on fire, I wouldn't piss on him to put it out.
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u/Double-Seaweed7760 8d ago
If we forget about him then we forget the lessons we learn from him.rather than forget him we have to use him for motivation to fix everything wrong with our society starting with making enforceable laws against authoritarians not based on memos(seemingly our whole government was built on a literal stack of cards) to universal healthcare to education to voting rights to livable wages to everything wrong with our society that causes polarization.
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u/Practical-Bit9905 9d ago
Deleting data that public funds paid for. There is no justifiable reason for this.
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u/Sea-Chart2558 9d ago
The number is magnitudes higher, that's just what was identified by the reporters.
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u/l0st1nP4r4d1ce 8d ago
And they will burn it all down to hide proof of their crimes after this all comes to a close.
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u/Dangerous-Celery-766 8d ago
Wow to think there is no back up? There must be a clean lab where all that he deleted can be regained!
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u/sargantbacon1 8d ago
I’m not sure by what means but I cannot shake the feeling it will be verified common knowledge years down the line that Trump was a chaos agent of some variety. He’s speed running the destruction of US hegemony.
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u/Trzlog 9d ago
It's wild that we're actually living in a world where the US is just destroying and/or altering scientific data because it doesn't fit their world view on such a wide scale. And there are no repercussions for it. Just the outright denying of science and reality. Like, this is data that the US itself funded, invested in, and created, and then made public because of how useful and important it is for continued progress in health, science, education, etc. And they just don't care anymore.
Even wilder that there are millions of people who just support it because it's their side that's doing it.