April 22, 2025

Here’s How the Trump Administration Attacked Science, Health Care and Public Health in its First 100 Days

As we approach Donald Trump’s 100 days in office, here is a summary of his administration’s assault on public health, and how Public Citizen is fighting back:

Handpicking Unqualified, Deranged Cabinet Members

• Trump nominated a rogues’ gallery of unqualified nominees for important healthpositions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS secretary, Jim O’Neill for HHS deputy secretary, Dr. Mehmet Oz for CMS, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for NIH
  • Public Citizen Fights Back: We opposed these nominees through leading sign-on letters, drafting primers highlighting conflicts of interests and dangerous views, worked with committee staff on questions for the nominees and conducted rapid response during their hearings.

Destroying Public Health Agencies

• Trump’s health administrators fired or forced resignations of senior staff, including the top vaccine regulator at the FDA, directors of many NIH institutes, and senior FDA staff involved in the regulation of food, tobacco and new drugs. The administration has also proposed consolidation of many HHS agencies with near elimination of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
• The Trump Administration stripped vital public health information from HHS, CDC and FDA websites and abandoned all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
  • Public Citizen Fights Back: Our litigation group filed a lawsuit to restore public health information online.

Threatening Lives Across the Globe

• The wholesale dismantling of US foreign assistance has triggered a humanitarian crisis–halting funding, supply chains, data systems, and care for hundreds of millions of people. Payments were suspended, including for work already completed, and awards terminated at breakneck pace. USAID cuts have cost over 100,000 jobs globally, including an estimated 18.9k–51.9k jobs in the U.S. (laid off or furloughed employees due to the funding freeze) — effectively gutting the USAID workforce swaths of USAID-funded health workforce worldwide.
  • Public Citizen Fights Back: We are using our networks across regions and institutions to obtain timely information, elevate what’s happening on the ground, and connect the dots between policy decisions and real-world consequences. We also filed two key lawsuits — one to restore foreign assistance funding and another to restore the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
• Trump issued an executive order announcing his intent to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), suspending funding and other support and recalling U.S. government personnel assigned to work with WHO — to the detriment of several global health programs and emergency response efforts.
  • Public Citizen Fights Back:  Public Citizen is working with allies across the globe to resist this rollback of life-saving support and hold the Trump administration accountable. We are publishing reports , convening with global partners and collaborating with congressional allies to provide expertise and updates.
• The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “accidentally” cancelled funding that was supporting an active Ebola response in Uganda, including contracts for airport screenings and protective gear for health workers.

Eroding Healthcare Access

• Trump’s allies in Congress are seeking to cut Medicare and Medicaid, with dangerous implications for access to health care, particularly for seniors and people with disabilities.
  • Public Citizen Fights Back: We worked with allies to highlight the dangers of such cuts, including highlighting what they would mean for working families.
• The Trump Administration is threatening to further privatize Medicare, threatening to hinder access to care and put the long term health of the program in jeopardy. Since their inception in 2003, Medicare Advantage plans are estimated to have cost taxpayers more than $600 billion in overpayments. These overpayments are expected to grow to $1 trillion over the next decade.
  • Public Citizen Fights Back: We worked with other groups and with members of Congress to call out these efforts and highlight that Medicare for All is the real reform needed to guarantee health care for everyone in the U.S.
• President Trump and his allies in Congress want to give Big Pharma its top demand to undermine the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program—blocking seniors’ and people with disabilities’ access to Medicare-negotiated prices until 13 years after a drug is approved. The negotiation delay giveaway would cost Medicare $10 billion and exempt many drugs from ever having prices negotiated.
  • ​​​​​Public Citizen Fights Back: We showed how delaying price negotiations would have exempted many costly drugs from negotiation and are working with other groups to educate members of Congress about the costs for patients and taxpayers of Big Pharma’s delay plan.