When Michael Kratsios—a.k.a. the White House’s top science and tech guru under President Trump—declared that U.S. innovations now “manipulate time and space,” we had to check our calendars… twice.

Kratsios, who serves as the President’s Science and Technology Advisor and U.S. Chief Technology Officer, made the claim at the Endless Frontiers Retreat in Austin on April 14, 2025. In plain English, he told a room full of scientists and industry leaders that America’s gadgets can bend the universe.

“We seem to have lost focus and vision, to have lowered our sights and let systems and structures and bureaucracies muddle us along. But we are capable of so much more.”  

“Our technologies permit us to manipulate time and space. They leave distance annihilated, cause things to grow, and improve productivity.“

After a hefty amount of facepalming, I reread the whole thing again, looking for a metaphor or something I missed. Nope. Not only that, but the “bending” part is mentioned again, at the end of the speech, as an objective:

“It is the choices of individuals that will make the new American Golden Age possible: the choice of individuals to master the sclerosis of the state, and the choice of individuals to craft new technologies and give themselves to scientific discoveries that will bend time and space, make more with less, and drive us further into the endless frontier.”

Look, I like science fiction as much as the next guy. I grew up on it. But you don’t expect the White House to publish sci-fi as official remarks. Kratsios also accused the Biden Administration of leading with a “spirit of fear” before going on the Star Trek ramble.

Meanwhile, in reality

The new administration keeps touting a grand vision for America. But at least when it comes to science and related fields like health and environment, it’s already shaping up to be a disaster. It yanked nearly $300 million in health grants from Virginia, gutting tuberculosis research and addiction treatment programs; it imposed political review layers that forced CDC scientists to retract or pause papers that didn’t conform with Trump’s ideology; it’s eviscerating NASA and NOAA budgets, mass‑canceling federal science grants, and removing key medical research funding. Everywhere you look, science is being attacked in the US at an unprecedented scale. Many scientists are fleeing or considering fleeing the US.

It’s perhaps a good allegory of how things are going: the US is slashing core research while dreaming of cosmic conquest.

Without proper funding, labs close. Projects stall. Talented scientists decamp overseas. All while Kratsios promises a Golden Age that feels more like a customer-service line with long waits, endless hold music, and zero results.

In the end, bending time and space would be a nice change of pace. Maybe we could go to a time where facts matter and actual science is supported globally. But for now, I wouldn’t hold my breath.