the brain drain has been going on for a long time, trump just accelerated it. the low job market for stem/lab research is pretty bad. "want to start out, no problem, just have your resume with 2-4+years of lab /research experience ready."

The ones without the resources to just up and leave.

not only that but the poor job prospects besides what trump has done especially at the non-phd level.

i wouldnt put my bet on that, there is still the problem of them innovating and not controlling what research/cooking the books by the ccp. theres a reason why they are fleeing to europe and not china. they are exceling in certain areas. AND YES ccp has thier own problems to deal with, the massive amount of chinese graduates that cant find jobs, are already incensed that the ccp was luring foreigners for research/engineer positions, while ignoring the citizens.

Like Fallout predicted.

US federal budgeting this year have pushed hard to gut science. I've heard talking points regurgitated by college educated folks that businesses will pay for it instead, but when pressed for examples or how it would work they are only able to point to engineering projects, they can't differentiate between basic scientific research producing testable, accurate models and the products and services built using those models.

TRUMP and WH have been attacking defunding science/education grants all over the country. a small percentage of researchers already fled the US, in case violence picks up, and intellectuals are usually the first targets.

this in combination of the ongoing problem with stem, low job prospects.

Making such profound changes to how a country functions is like turning a large ship. It can take time.

thats sad, but im not really surprised it seems like PIs all over the us already are on razor thin budgets to begin with. i think these have become more competitive too, when i was trying to apply to these types of jobs last decade , they wanted people with alot of experience up front that you couldnt get at uni's because those labs are always packed.

one program, CLS9(clinical lab) i was look at got more competitive over the years, as people realized that choosing another grad program wasn't going to amount to better jobs, as CLS was a cheap program with a high income(100k+ starting at least in the west) if you can even get into the program. they have an abridged program for MLT, but that usually doesnt help.