The Trump administration has given notice that political appointees, rather than scientists, will ultimately decide who gets grant money from the world’s largest biomedical research funder — the federal government’s National Institutes of Health.

In an Aug. 7 executive order , President Donald Trump announced that political officers would have the power to summarily cancel any federal grant, including for scientific work, that is not “consistent with agency priorities.” Senior officials should not “routinely defer” to recommendations from peer reviewers, who have provided the backbone of federal science funding for eight decades.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya reinforced the message in an Aug. 15 internal memorandum stating that political priorities may override the scoring system pro

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