The Kid Angle: Is the Administration oblivious to children? Or purposely harmful?

Since taking office 73 days ago, the Trump Administration has proven itself, at best, oblivious to children and their needs. At worst, mendacious and deliberately targeting them.

Recent polls have shown growing agreement among Americans of all parties that we as a nation spend too little on our children. Yet Congress at this very minute is considering billions of dollars in cuts to children’s programs in order to fulfill the President’s promise of bigger and more expansive tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.

The specific threats to children are easily lost in the daily froth of news. Which is why we’ve collected some (but not all) of them here for you:

The Washington Post

Trump administration moves to cut programs that fight child labor abroad

The Labor Department is canceling $500 million allocated to programs that combat child labor, forced labor, human trafficking and abusive practices in more than 40 countries.

POLITICO

USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks

States have been notified that they will not receive 2025 funding for schools to buy food from nearby farms.

Axios

HHS drops surgeon general’s advisory on gun violence

The Trump administration removed a 2024 surgeon general’s advisory on the public health impacts of gun violence and a related webpage from the Health and Human Services website (still available here); guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. 

Stanford University

Study finds foreign aid sanctions set back progress on maternal and child health

Researchers analyzed three decades of sanctions on foreign aid to assess their impact on health. They hope the work can help government officials better understand and address how foreign policy decisions affect the well-being of local populations.

ProPublica

The CDC Buried a Measles Forecast That Stressed the Need for Vaccinations

The move — along with the CDC’s explanation — is a sign that the nation’s top public health agency may be falling in line under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines.

AP News

Trump administration drops lawsuit against company accused of abusing children at migrant shelters

The Trump administration says it is dropping a civil lawsuit against the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children over alleged sexual abuse of minors at its facilities.

Science Magazine

Child malnutrition set to soar as U.S. and other countries slash foreign aid

Deep funding cuts could deprive millions of treatment and cause more than 350,000 extra deaths per year, report predicts.

USA TODAY

Migrant kids may have to face court alone, as Trump admin cancels legal contract

“This brazen, heartless act endangers children’s lives,” says lawyer who represents unaccompanied minors. 

The Washington Post

Trump asks Supreme Court to allow birthright citizenship ban in some states

Judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington have issued nationwide orders blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban birthright citizenship.

HuffPost

Trump Labor Department Cuts Child Care Programs For Its Own Employees

The changes likely won’t save huge sums of money but will help the Trump administration continue to signal it is cracking down on the federal workforce.

The New Yorker

Trump’s Vivisection of the Department of Education

The President cannot legally shut down a government agency, but his Administration could make it essentially impossible for the D.O.E. to function.

Morningstar

Americans get a bigger tax break for buying an EV than for raising children. ‘What in the world are we doing?’

An examination of how the tax code treats different households shows that working families get far less support than some other taxpayers.

Military.com

Banned Books, School Walkouts, Child Care Shortages: Military Families Confront Pentagon’s Shifting Rules

At a public school, the protest might have led to a detention and maybe some revoked after-school privileges. But on a military base, the students were putting more on the line.

 The Hill

Trump administration to end funding for vaccinating children in poor countries

The Trump administration plans to end U.S. funding for Gavi, a global program that purchases shots to help vaccinate children in developing countries against some of the world’s deadliest diseases.

The Washington Post

Vaccine skeptic hired to head federal study of immunizations and autism

A long-discredited researcher and vaccine skeptic will conduct a government study on whether vaccines cause autism.

The Washington Post

Trump terminates program tracking mass abductions of Ukrainian children

Observers fear the move has compromised evidence of war crimes by Russian officials and will hinder efforts to rescue thousands of missing Ukrainian children.

NBC News

Deported family of U.S. citizen girl recovering from brain surgery alleges civil rights abuses

Attorneys are requesting a probe into abuses they say the family faced in U.S. detention and urging immigration authorities to grant humanitarian parole to the undocumented parents.

The New York Times

Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.

Within an hour of starting interviews, I had the names of a 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl who had died because of decisions by wealthy men in Washington.