I'm not sure what the rationale for the Trump administration cutting science funding is? Is there some method in the madness as it were?
Education level is correlated with voting preference [0].
US universities are funded in large part by scientific research grants. Cutting funding directly damages these institutions, and it gives the current administration leverage they can use to influence university political policies through either overt ultimatums (cut DEI or we don’t give you the money) or indirectly by funding professors with pro-administration viewpoints while defunding professors with anti-administration viewpoints.
[0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1535279/presidential-ele...
Childish "retaliation" in the only way they know how (bullying) against the people who prove their favorite "tinfoil hat" theories wrong time after time (science nerds) mostly?