Major brain drain: Researchers eye exit from Trumps America [Video]

In the halls of US universities and research labs, one question has become increasingly common as President Donald Trump tightens his grip on the field: whether to move abroad.

“Everybody is talking about it,” JP Flores, a doctoral student in genetics at the University of North Carolina, told AFP.

The discussion was thrust into the spotlight after Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, a specialist in fascism, announced he was taking a new post in Canada over the Trump administration’s “authoritarian” bent.

“I made the decision when Columbia folded,” he told CBS News. “I made it in a split second.”

Columbia University, which the Trump administration has threatened with major funding cuts, said it agreed to take steps to rein in pro-Palestinian protests, among other actions.

“It is not the time to cower and fear,” said Stanley, who added there was “absolutely no doubt that the United States is an authoritarian …