Bill Nye has called out Donald Trump’s administration over its “huge mistake” as the White House eyes seismic cuts at NASA in its proposed 2027 fiscal year budget.
The “Science Guy,” in an interview with NBC News’ Sahil Kapur, contrasted the proposed cuts with NASA’s “inspirational” Artemis II mission that saw astronauts using the Orion spacecraft to fly by the far side of the moon.
“Meanwhile, someone wants to, sort of — how to say, end NASA,” said Nye of the White House’s proposed 23% cut (or a $5 billion decrease) in overall funding to the space agency, which includes a 46% slash to its science programs.
“It’s a strange time.”
He went on to point to Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress has the power to “promote the Progress of Science.”
“We like to remind people, that’s what keeps the U.S. ahead,” said Nye, chief ambassador and vice chairman of The Planetary Society, a nonprofit, nongovernmental space advocacy group.
He later added, “You cannot be a leader in space without being a leader in science. So this is just a mistake.”
The administration’s pitch follows a similar proposal to gut NASA’s science budget by nearly half last year.
The beloved science TV host, in an interview with JS in the fall, stressed that the cuts would be an “extraordinary waste” of billions of dollars, noting that missions already operating would have their funding stripped away as a result.
Congress would later shoot down the administration’s attempt to make the deep cuts at NASA, approving the agency’s $24.4 billion budget in January.
NASA generated an estimated $75.6 billion into the U.S. economy in 2023.
Nye told NBC News that NASA is America’s “best brand,” as people around the world recognize the agency.
He also questioned why the White House would pitch cuts similar to those proposed last year, noting that its budget request appears to be written in a “much lazier” fashion.
“There are typos, they referred to 2026 instead of 2027, and they left out some language just so arbitrarily. It’s just sort of cut and paste without paying attention,” he said.
Nye, in an interview with CBS News’ Major Garrett, summed up the cuts as a “bad idea” and a “tone-deaf” move by the administration.
He claimed that representatives from “either side of the aisle” in Congress don’t want to cut NASA’s funding, adding that he expects they won’t vote to slash the agency’s budget this time around.
