I'm trying to understand the rationale behind this. US's global superiority has largely been driven by programs like the NSF, making the US the world leader fo

I'm trying to understand the rationale behind this. US's global superiority has largely been driven by programs like the NSF, making the US the world leader for r&d and inventing completely new industries. Why would you completely gut these programs with such amazing ROI? Putting my conspiracist hat on, it seems like this only benefits countries like China/Russia that want to weaken the US.