Surviving Trump: Your Essential Guide to His Second Term

Episode 42: Hurricane Trump Aims to Destroy NOAA

Bella Goode Episode 42

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NOAA is more than a weather agency; it is America’s environmental safety net. Under Trump’s second term, that net is being torn apart, and the agency is now under direct political assault. In this episode, Bella Goode investigates how Trump’s second term has turned NOAA into a loyalty-driven operation, stripping away scientists, silencing climate research, and handing public data to private interests under Project 2025. Learn how dismantling science is not just a policy shift but a calculated assault on public safety that leaves the most vulnerable individuals in greater danger from extreme weather.


Key Takeaways To Listen For

  • The controversial return of Sharpiegate’s Neil Jacobs and the purge of dissenting scientists; What this signals for scientific integrity
  • A 20% staff cut to the agency’s workforce that leaves leaves cascading effects on forecasting and disaster response
  • Privatizing weather data emerges as part of Project 2025’s broader anti-science agenda
  • Why the loss of real-time observations from balloons, buoys, and coastal radar creates dangerous gaps in forecasting
  • How delayed and weakened warnings negatively impact those dependent on NOAA’s services
  • Case studies revealing how degraded NOAA capacity turned storms and floods into mass-casualty events
  • How weakened warnings deepen inequality for the communities most dependent on NOAA’s services


Resources Mentioned In This Episode

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Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

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