Editor-in-chief of Scientific American resigns following expletive-filled rant against Trump voters

Laura Helmuth, the editor-in-chief of Scientific American, has resigned after receiving fierce backlash for her online expletive-filled tirade where she called Trump voters “f–king fascists” on election night.

“I’ve decided to leave Scientific American after an exciting 4.5 years as editor in chief,” Helmuth announced on her Bluesky account Thursday.

“I’m going to take some time to think about what comes next (and go birdwatching).”

The president of the magazine, Kimberly Lau, said that Helmuth decided to step down on her own.

She thanked Helmuth for her time leading Scientific American, noting that the magazine “won major science communications awards and saw the establishment of a reimagined digital newsroom” while she was at the helm.

“We wish her well for the future,” Lau said in a statement to The Washington Post.

Lau said the magazine has already begun its search for a new editor.

The Post has reached out to Scientific American for comment on Helmuth’s resignation.

Helmuth’s resignation comes after she fired off a series of social media posts on election night bashing people who voted for president-elect Donald Trump over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Solidarity to everybody whose meanest, dumbest, most bigoted high-school classmates are celebrating early results because f–k them to the moon and back,” she wrote in one post on the social media platform Bluesky on Nov. 5.

In another post, Helmuth wrote, “I apologize to younger voters that my Gen X is full of f–king fascists.”

“Every four years I remember why I left Indiana (where I grew up) and remember why I respect the people who stayed and are trying to make it less racist and sexist. The moral arc of the universe isn’t going to bend itself,” she also wrote on election night.

Her posts soon led to a wildfire of backlash on social media, with users demanding that she resign, claiming she could not carry out her job as editor-in-chief objectively.

Soon after facing mounting criticism online, Helmuth deleted the posts.

The next day, she shared a Scientific American article titled “Election Grief Is Real. Here’s How to Cope,” featuring comments from University of Minnesota emeritus professor and psychotherapist Pauline Boss.

Boss referred to election grief in her article as “a grief that remains unresolved.”

“It’s not like a grief of a person for whom you have a death certificate and a funeral after and rituals of support and comfort. We’re stuck with this. I wrote about it as frozen grief,” Boss wrote.

Helmuth eventually apologized for her explicit-filled rant on Nov. 7, saying her comments were “offensive and inappropriate.”

She also claimed to “respect and value people across the political spectrum.”

Though she deleted her posts, a screenshot was shared on X Tuesday, with the user asking: “Does the editor-in-chief of Scientific American seem like someone who is entirely dedicated to uncompromising scientific integrity? Or does she seem like a political activist who has taken over a scientific institution?”

The post caught the attention of the platform’s owner and vocal Trump supporter, Elon Musk, who reacted to Helmuth’s tirade and commented, “The latter.”

Scientific American formally endorsed Harris for president over Trump, only the second time in the magazine’s 179-year history that its editors made a pick for the White House.

Helmuth has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley, and attended the University of California, Santa Cruz’s science communication program, according to the magazine’s website.

She has previously worked as an editor at Smithsonian magazine, Slate, Science magazine, and The Washington Post, according to her LinkedIn profile page. 

Helmuth became editor-in-chief of the Scientific American in April 2020.