In his March address to Congress, President Donald Trump spotlighted a Texas boy battling brain cancer and promised to slash childhood cancer rates under his new “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) campaign. The chamber erupted in applause.
But days later, Trump quietly dropped a lawsuit aimed at cutting emissions from a Louisiana chemical plant tied to cancer. The move was just the beginning.
Despite bold promises to tackle chronic illness and remove toxins from the environment, the Trump administration has unleashed a wave of cuts that could do just the opposite—making Americans sicker.
Health and Human Services (HHS) is being gutted: 20,000 jobs slashed, $4 billion cut from indirect health research costs, and major reductions to studies on Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other chronic diseases. Medicaid, which covers more than 70 million Americans, is also in the firing line.
Experts say it’s a baffling contradiction.
“They’re talking about tackling chronic disease, but doing the opposite,” said Larry Levitt of KFF, a health policy nonprofit. “Cutting research and protections undermines that goal.”
While the administration insists the cuts target “redundant” positions and will make HHS more efficient, public health leaders aren’t convinced. Entire divisions dedicated to chronic disease have been decimated, including the CDC’s population health division and Office on Smoking and Health, as well as the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
“This guts the very people who’ve spent their careers protecting public health,” said Sharon Gilmartin of Safe States Alliance.
The Alzheimer’s Association warned of “irreversible damage” after NIH researchers were put on leave. Hundreds of research projects—many focused on HIV, cancer, and vaccines—have been cancelled. Columbia University alone lost over 400 grants.
Meanwhile, Trump pulled the US out of the World Health Organization on day one of his second term, weakening the country’s defences against future infectious disease outbreaks. The US Agency for International Development, vital in global disease detection, has also been stripped down.
The consequences are already hitting home: Texas is battling a measles outbreak, but local health departments have been forced to lay off outbreak response teams.
Despite all this, the administration says the $1.8 billion in annual savings will make HHS more “nimble” and help eliminate environmental toxins—echoing Trump’s public pledge to fix chronic disease at its root.
But critics say it’s all smoke and mirrors.
“You can’t ‘Make America Healthy Again’ by cancelling research, axing healthcare programmes, and gutting the agencies that fight disease,” said Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care. “This isn’t health reform—it’s sabotage.”
