The left-wing climate scientist and political activist Michael Mann resigned on Tuesday from his post as vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). [emphasis, links added]
Mann stirred up controversy repeatedly over the past several months, most recently when he shared a social media post that compared Charlie Kirk to a member of the “Hitler Youth.”
Mann will remain at the university as a professor and the director of its Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media.
Mann explained in a blog post on Monday that his environmental advocacy work “at times feels in conflict” with UPenn’s institutional neutrality policy.
“At this moment in time, I don’t feel that I can forsake the public scholarship and advocacy that I am doing and have thus decided to step down from the VPC role,” he wrote.
Although Mann cited his recent work with staunch vaccine defender Peter Hotez as an example of his advocacy efforts, he has faced criticism in recent months over his public outbursts.
[A]fter police identified Kirk’s killer, Mann joked that “white on white violence has gotten out of hand.”
Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.) called for UPenn to take “immediate, decisive action” against Mann following his tirade against Kirk earlier this month.
A day after Kirk’s assassination, Mann attacked a New York Times editorial titled, “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way.” At one point, Mann reposted a comment likening Kirk to a Nazi.
And after police identified Kirk’s killer, Mann joked that “white on white violence has gotten out of hand.”
Senior administrator at the University of Pennsylvania Michael Mann is on an unhinged generational run on X, reposting comments calling Charlie Kirk the “head of Trump’s Hitler Youth.”
Mann also wrote: “The white on white violence has gotten out of hand.”
Does UPENN agree with… pic.twitter.com/YQy3mfyqxD
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 11, 2025
“This is despicable behavior. This dangerous rhetoric cannot and will not be tolerated. I unequivocally condemn this behavior,” wrote McCormick.
In May, Mann warned that the United States would be in “second amendment territory” if Trump didn’t comply with a federal court injunction blocking a plan to dismantle the Department of Education.
He then attempted to defend his apparent threat, stating the Second Amendment “refers to the right of the people to rise up and defend democracy.”
He eventually deleted the post altogether.
It is unclear whether the University of Pennsylvania leadership forced Mann to resign. The university did not respond to a request for comment.
Mann’s resignation, meanwhile, comes less than a year after the university gave him the position. He was named UPenn’s inaugural vice provost for climate science, policy, and action in October 2024.
In addition, Mann has faced legal setbacks this year. A Washington, D.C., court ordered him to pay more than $1 million to cover litigation costs for the Competitive Enterprise Institute and National Review, two entities he has accused of libel.
Top image via Democracy Now!/YouTube cropped screencap
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They should have fired his sorry A**.
The climate change (ludicrous self moniker) movement has always been about the politically motivated destruction of the socioeconomic fabric of free societies.