Trump demands ‘lies’ in West Point climate curriculum, professor claims in new lawsuit
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/west-point-climate-change-trump-professor-adam-kalkstein-b3039247.html
Trump demands ‘lies’ in West Point climate curriculum, professor claims in new lawsuit
Exclusive: ‘What’s going on is... just shocking,’ attorney Michael Sussman told The Independent
A tenured professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point claims he was fired after pushing back on a presidential directive to “defy science” and stop teaching cadets that climate change had “primarily human causes, something contrary to the ideology of the Commander in Chief and forbidden at West Point.”
Last September, Dr. Adam Kalkstein, a professor of geography and the only climate scientist at the United States Military Academy, says higher-ups “expressly forbade” him from talking about anthropogenic climate change, according to a federal lawsuit reviewed by The Independent.
“At the time, [Kalkstein] was teaching two sections of Climatology in which he taught that humans were responsible for much of the current planetary warming trend and presented the scientific evidence, consequences, and military impacts,” the complaint states. “Learning how humans affect the atmosphere was a fundamental component of his course which he had been teaching for many years, and the concept that humans can alter Earth’s climate is a plainly established scientific fact.”
The order had come from the White House, Kalkstein was informed, his complaint says. Its intent was to “chill and suppress speech and censor viewpoints contrary” to those promulgated by the Trump administration, the complaint goes on.
However, Kalkstein – a conservative Republican, according to his lawyer – spoke out against the decree, telling West Point brass that misrepresenting reality “violated the mission of the academy as it required professors to hide scientific truth,” according to the complaint.
“We’re only telling cadets part of the story,” Kalkstein told his bosses. “We’re lying to them, deceiving them. It would be like trying to teach the law without being able to even mention the Constitution. The guiding principle of any school should be to the truth… I’m supposed to be an educator and a scientist upholding Army values, but… right now, I’m a liar and a fraud.”
In response, Kalkstein was stripped of his tenure and put on a contract – which has since been canceled. It is set to expire in December, the complaint states.
Attorney Michael Sussman, who is representing Kalkstein, told The Independent that he felt this case was too important to pass up.
“This is not someone who is a radical or a progressive or anything close to that,” Sussman said on Tuesday. “He is a scientist though, and he’s trying to inform the cadets on what is true. But they told him, ‘If you teach that, you’re out of here.’”
Sussman said Kalkstein even wrote a letter to Trump-appointed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, pointing out that climate change is a recognized threat to the military itself, but that the missive never reached its intended destination.
Ignoring the human factors that are accelerating climate change is “counterproductive from the perspective of people who are deeply concerned about the military and its challenges,” Sussman argued.
“What’s going on there is a form of censorship, which is just shocking,” he said. “And it's not being defended based on any intellectual principles. It’s being defended on the basis of power, that, ‘I have power over you.’ When my client made clear his consternation, that was it.”
The only other civilian faculty member laid off was a professor who researched bias, Sussman said, citing Kalkstein’s complaint.
In an email, a West Point spokesperson said, “We are aware of the allegations and take such matters seriously. Beyond information available in public court filings, we have nothing to add at this time.”
In January 2025, exactly one week after Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office, he issued an Executive Order requiring the military to “carefully review the leadership, curriculum and instructors of the United States Service Academies and other defense academic institutions.” Trump famously never served, being granted at least five draft deferrals during Vietnam for “bone spurs.”
West Point touts its academic program as one that aims “to establish the intellectual foundation for service as a highly educated commissioned officer,” with the ability to “collect, analyze and interpret data to inform evidence-based conclusions and evaluate outcomes,” according to Kalkstein’s complaint, which was filed August 24 in White Plains federal court.
Kalkstein, one of about 100 civilian professors at West Point, joined the faculty roughly 17 years ago, his complaint states.
His annual reviews were “outstanding,” with top ratings in each category, according to the complaint. It says Kalkstein was also one of West Point’s biggest recipients of external research grant funding.
Then, in May 2025, Kalkstein was suddenly informed by Geography and Earth Sciences department head Col. Mark Read that he was one of two professors being let go as part of a “reduction in force,” the complaint states.
Although Read insisted the move had nothing to do with his teaching the only climatology course at the academy, Kalkstein did not believe his claims, according to the complaint. Still, it says Kalkstein was allowed to stay on as a contract employee, with his salary coming from his existing grant money. But, in order to make it happen, Kalkstein’s superiors told him he would have to give up his tenure.
“With no options and significant obligations, [he] accepted this offer,” the complaint states.
That September, Kalkstein was called into an “emergency meeting” by geography program director Lt. Col. Joel Radunzel, according to the complaint. Radunzel said no one was to teach students about human-caused climate change, and relayed a “clear threat” that if anyone leaked news of the directive to the media, the entire department would be eliminated, the complaint alleges.
Later that day, Kalkstein told Read that the administration’s demands “crossed a red line for him as a scientist.”
Yet, Kalkstein’s misgivings about the order were ignored. He went to the Department of Defense Inspector General’s Office, without success, the complaint states. So, Kalkstein tried West Point’s legal department, which responded by sending him a sheaf of cases “supposedly supporting the legality of the order.” Kalkstein “studied the cases, which clearly showed the exact opposite,” according to the complaint.
“Despite his profound misgivings, [Kalkstein] continued to obey the order,” it says.
In early November, Kalkstein presented his research to “plaudits” from Brig. Gen. Shane Reeves, dean of West Point’s Academic Board, the complaint states. When he was finished, one of Kalkstein’s fellow professors presented a PowerPoint deck that “affirmed the department’s compliance with the directive not to mention human causes for climate change,” according to the complaint.
Kalkstein, for his part, explained that the directive “violated the mission” of West Point, as it “required professors to hide scientific truth.” Reeves, who is now retired, became incensed, and angrily reminded Kalkstein that the president sets the academic agenda for West Point, the complaint says. While that may be true, Kalkstein replied, the president was still required to abide by the Constitution.
“Defendant Reeves suggested that [Kalkstein] resign from his position,” the complaint states. “[Kalkstein] indicated that his personal responsibilities precluded that. Continuing to yell, Defendant Reeves stated that he had seen enough and stormed out of the meeting, again threatening the entire Department if its members did not comply.”
This past May, Read told Kalkstein that his contract would not be renewed when it expired in December. Read claimed Kalkstein was being let go over his supposed “poor character and temperament,” which contradicted nearly two decades of glowing performance reviews, according to the complaint.
West Point, the complaint maintains, “clearly terminated [Kalkstein] because he expressed his opposition to the directive to purge human causes as one of the bases for climate change.”
Kalkstein is suing West Point, Reeves, Read, and Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland, now retired, who served as the academy’s superintendent and commanding officer until this month.
His lawsuit follows one filed last year by a West Point law professor who said the academy’s restrictions on lesson plans violated his First Amendment rights.
Kalkstein is now seeking a court order to enjoin West Point from “imposing or enforcing baseless restrictions on academic freedom and the capacity of a professor to fairly represent the state of scientific research and knowledge,” to reinstate him to his tenured position, and is demanding compensatory damages for material losses and emotional distress, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.
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