Has Trump learned nothing from his previous cuts? Over 2,000 NASA employees set to be let go

Donald Trump's administration is reportedly cutting over 2,000 high-ranking NASA employees in their latest cost-cutting spree, despite public backlash.

According to recently obtained documents, most of the 2,145 employees leaving are in senior-level government ranks, robbing the agency of decades of experience through early retirement, buyouts, and deferred resignations.

1,818 of those staff currently work in core mission areas like science, or human space flight, while the rest work in mission support roles like information technology (IT).

The Trump administration has already thrown NASA into chaos by introducing layoffs and proposed budget cuts for 2026 which would cancel dozens of science programs.

  Joe Raedle/Getty Images

So how would these new cuts affect the agency, and why would this be detrimental to the continued success and advancements of space travel and technology?

The Planetary society predicted this devastating chain of events back in March, when they expressed their horror at rumours that the Trump administration could be cutting up to 50% of NASA's science budget.

They called for supporters to sign a curated letter and send to the White house, asking them not to go ahead with future cuts.

Posting on twitter they said, "This would be nothing short of an extinction level event for NASA's science and exploration, losing that much money, that fast, would force NASA to make so many terrible decisions."

"You like missions to Venus? Too bad, they're gone. What about missions to Mars? Deep space? The sun? Earth? Anywhere? Active missions that are producing science right now? Too bad. Those are probably gone too."

Seven former heads of NASA's science Mission Directorate also signed a joint letter last week condemning the White House's proposed 47% cuts to next years budget, warning they could ceed US space leadership to China.

The letter states, “The economics of these proposed cuts ignore a fundamental truth: investments in NASA science have been and are a powerful driver of the U.S. economy and technological leadership,”

“In our former roles leading NASA’s space science enterprise, we consistently saw skilled teams innovate in the face of seemingly impossible goals, including landing a car-sized rover on Mars with pinpoint precision, build a massive telescope that can unfold in the vacuum of space to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, design and operate a spacecraft hardy enough to survive temperatures of many thousands of degrees at the Sun, inspiring young and old alike worldwide by the stunning images from the Hubble Space Telescope, and pioneering the use of small satellites for science.”

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