POSTS
- Ebola outbreak raises alarms about Trump's global health moves (
May 21, 2026 ) - Overview of President Trump’s Executive Actions Impacting LGBTQ+ Health (
May 20, 2026 ) - Penile implant specialist with history of far-right comments led hantavirus presser (
May 15, 2026 ) - Experts Stress Trump's CDC Is 'Not Sufficiently Responding' To Hantavirus. Here's What Info You Can Actually Trust. (
May 12, 2026 ) - Trump administration cuts CDC’s key role in global program to stop HIV (
May 8, 2026 )
Public health and safety in America are facing a systematic dismantling as the federal government withdraws from its role in protecting patients and fostering medical innovation.
Since Trump returned to office in January 2025, his administration has pursued a multi-front dismantlement of federal healthcare infrastructure through executive action, agency restructuring, and landmark legislation.
Agency workforce. HHS lost nearly a quarter of its staff — 20,000 positions eliminated, shrinking the workforce from 82,000 to 62,000. The hardest-hit agencies: the CDC (–2,400), FDA (–3,500), and NIH (–1,200). Separately, the administration cancelled $12 billion in grants to state and local health departments that funded infectious disease tracking and behavioral health services.
NIH research grants. Starting in February 2025, the administration began terminating already-funded research grants. By year's end, more than 7,800 grants had been cancelled or suspended — 5,844 at NIH alone — totaling billions in eliminated funding. Cuts fell disproportionately on research into infectious diseases, vaccine hesitancy, and minority health disparities. The GAO found that NIH disbursed $8 billion less than in comparable prior periods, and concluded the freeze violated the Impoundment Control Act.
The One Big Beautiful Bill (signed July 4, 2025). The single largest blow: $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the ACA — the largest rollback of federal health coverage in U.S. history. The CBO projects 10–15 million Americans will lose health insurance as a result. Key mechanisms include new Medicaid work requirements (80 hours/month), tighter ACA marketplace enrollment rules, and restrictions on states' ability to raise Medicaid revenue. Over 300 rural hospitals are now at immediate risk of closure.
What's ahead. The proposed FY2027 budget cuts HHS by a further $15.8 billion and seeks a 39% reduction in NIH funding — though Congress has so far resisted cuts at that scale.
These "ideologically driven" cuts represent a fundamental shift away from evidence-based public health toward an agenda that endangers American lives and stalls decades of life-saving progress.