Editor of oldest US magazine quits after anti-Trump rant

Scientific American had endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris for president

The editor-in-chief of Scientific American magazine, Laura Helmuth, has resigned after a series of social media posts denouncing those who voted for US President-elect Donald Trump as “fascists.”

Scientific American is considered the oldest continuously published magazine in the US, having been founded in 1845.

Helmuth announced on Thursday that she was stepping down after “an exciting 4.5 years” as editor-in-chief. “I’m going to take some time to think about what comes next (and go birdwatching),” she added.

The magazine’s president, Kimberly Lau, said Helmuth’s departure was voluntary and thanked her for establishing “a reimagined digital newsroom” and leading the magazine to “major science communications awards.”

Helmuth became editor-in-chief of Scientific American in April 2020, after working at the Washington Post. Later that year, the magazine openly endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time in US history. Accusing Trump of “rejecting science,” it backed his rival, Democrat Joe Biden.

The magazine’s second-ever endorsement was this year, backing Democrat Kamala Harris over Trump. The Republican candidate swept all seven swing states, the popular vote and the electoral college in the November 5 presidential election.

“Solidarity to everybody whose meanest, dumbest, most bigoted high-school classmates are celebrating early results because f*** them to the moon and back,” Helmuth wrote on Bluesky, an X competitor preferred by Democrats, immediately after the vote.

“I apologize to younger voters that my Generation X is so full of f***in fascists” she said in another post, referring to a demographic that backed Trump. She also denounced her home state of Indiana as “racist and sexist.”

Screenshots of Helmuth’s diatribe soon appeared on X, where she was criticized for politicizing a once-great flagship of American science.

Prior to quitting, Helmuth attempted to distance herself and the magazine from her post-election comments.

“I respect and value people across the political spectrum,” she wrote on Bluesky. “These posts, which I have deleted, do not reflect my beliefs; they were a mistaken expression of shock and confusion about the election results.”

Her departure came two days after Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX who openly endorsed Trump, posted that the magazine “needs a change in management.” His observation was prompted not by Helmuth’s election remarks, however, but by one researcher’s criticism of a “shockingly moronic sentence” the magazine published in the article about a renowned biologist.

“Scientific” American needs a change in management https://t.co/XYrO0E7tSJ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2024