The Trump administration has tapped a climate science critic — who describes himself as a “professor in exile” — to lead the nation’s climate change office, according to a new report.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program, which effectively hollowed out during President Donald Trump’s first year in office, will now be led by Matthew Wielicki, a former University of Alabama geochemist, Politico reported Thursday.
In comments on X, Wielicki wrote that “the science is not settled on climate change” and argued that those who believe in a climate emergency are “being sold snake oil.”
When reached by The Independent, a White House spokesperson said: “The Trump Administration is committed to using the best scientific information to inform public policy. For too long, the USGCRP has been used as a vehicle for political agendas instead of sound science. We look forward to restoring the USGCRP and ensuring it fulfills its legal mandate.”
A Polish immigrant who often appears in conservative media, Wielicki said he departed higher education due to diversity, equity and inclusion programs. He’s suggested that climate scientists are fudging data to make the world seem warmer, Politico reports.
In 2024, he wrote that while “climate change is not a hoax,” he said, “you should take any catastrophic climate prediction with a grain of salt and ignore the [mainstream media] when it comes to climate change.” The same year, he posted: “In climate science, don’t attribute to humans what can be attributed to natural variability.”
Multiple studies have found that the vast majority of scientists agree that humans are responsible for climate change, according to the United Nations, which recently warned that the Earth is likely to shatter temperature records in the years ahead.
The past 11 years have been the 11 warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
USGCRP oversees the National Climate Assessment, the congressionally mandated quadrennial report that examines how climate change is affecting the U.S.
Previous editions, relying on peer-reviewed research, have warned about rising temperatures and increasing natural disasters. The report is used to help influence spending, planning, and risk mitigation, according to Politico.
It remains unknown how the Trump administration will use the reopened office, though the president has long railed against what he casts as climate alarmism.
“For far too long Climate Activism has been used by Dumocrats to scare Americans, push horrible Energy Polices, and fund BILLIONS into their bogus research programs,” the Republican president wrote on Truth Social in May. “My Administration will always be based on TRUTH, SCIENCE, and FACT!”
The administration has taken aim at a number of climate initiatives, including withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and rescinding an Obama-era EPA rule that opened the door to regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
