Seven months after inauguration, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology still has no members; Trump admin says it'll resume work soon
Months later, there's still no one sitting on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second data point in a pattern Recode documented early in the term: back in April, sources described the Office of Science and Technology Policy as sidelined and understaffed, with its director and other key posts unfilled. Now the advisory layer above it — the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology — is confirmed to have zero members seven months in, with the administration promising work will resume soon.
What fills the vacuum matters: in May the White House stood up the American Technology Council under ex-Microsoft executive Chris Liddell to modernize government IT, an ad hoc body rather than the statutory advisory structure. The arc runs long in both directions — Biden left the US CTO seat open for 20 months per later reporting, and by 2026 Trump finally populated PCAST with Zuckerberg, Ellison, Huang and others co-chaired by David Sacks.
First-order effects
- With no PCAST members and OSTP leadership vacant, the president currently has no formally constituted science and technology advisory channel — agencies and outside experts have no standing body to brief.
- The administration's stated plan to 'resume work soon' leaves existing OSTP staff operating without the council that traditionally validates and transmits scientific advice to the Oval Office.
Second-order effects
- Informal substitutes absorb the function: the American Technology Council, led by Chris Liddell, becomes the de facto venue for tech policy coordination, shifting influence toward White House staffers and industry-friendly channels rather than appointed scientists.
- Congress, agencies, and scientific societies lose a predictable interlocutor, pushing them to route concerns through political appointees or public pressure instead of the council process.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds across administrations — Obama filling posts quickly, Trump leaving PCAST empty, Biden leaving the US CTO open 20 months — presidential science advisory positions become discretionary rewards staffed late and selectively, weakening institutional continuity regardless of party.
- The eventual 2026 composition of PCAST with tech executives suggests where this ends: advisory bodies repopulated not as independent scientific counsel but as industry-aligned panels, changing whose expertise carries weight in AI and technology regulation.
The trend: Presidential science and technology advisory structures are being treated as optional staffing rather than standing institutions, left vacant for months and refilled on political timelines.