Public Citizen’s Fight Against Trump’s Assault on Global Health
Public Citizen News / March-April 2025
By Liza Barrie
This article appeared in the March/April 2025 edition of Public Citizen News. Download the full edition here.
The Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze and withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) is a deliberate attack on global health and international cooperation. Public Citizen is fighting back not only in the courts, but in Congress, in coalition with global allies, in the media, and in the streets.
Trump’s executive orders have shut down life-saving programs overnight, abandoned millions of people to disease and hunger, and dealt a devastating blow to decades of U.S. leadership in global health. The numbers are staggering: over 25 million people have received HIV treatment through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the U.S. government’s flagship global HIV/AIDS program; more than 60 million children are vaccinated annually through USAID-supported programs; WHO coordinates responses to outbreaks that threaten millions. This infrastructure took decades to build. Now, it is being destroyed in a matter of weeks.
Trump’s Strategy: Destroy the System, Starve the Institutions
The Trump administration’s actions are not about “reevaluating foreign aid” or “realigning priorities.” They are a systematic dismantling of the institutions that sustain global health and a surrender of U.S. leadership.
With a single executive order, Trump froze all global health funding, terminated or furloughed thousands of USAID employees, and blocked Congressionally approved funds for critical health programs—defying both the law and basic human decency. Simultaneously, his administration abandoned WHO, America’s last line of defense against pandemics, leaving a leadership vacuum in global health governance.
The damage is cascading across the globe. Clinics are closing. Medical supply chains are breaking down. Children are missing vaccinations, pregnant women are losing access to maternal care, and patients on antiretroviral treatment are being cut off from life-saving drugs.
The Legal Battle: Holding the Administration Accountable
Public Citizen is leading a multi-front legal battle to stop this attack on global health.
In early February, Public Citizen filed a lawsuit challenging the dismantling of USAID. By terminating the vast majority of its grants and contracts, firing most of its staff, shuttering its building, the Trump administration left thousands of Americans without jobs while creating a humanitarian nightmare abroad. The judge presiding over the case denied our motion for immediate relief while the case proceeds, but motions seeking a final decision are imminent.
A second lawsuit, filed on behalf of the HIV prevention coalition AVAC and the Journalism Development Network, challenges the administration’s freeze on foreign assistance funding and the stop-work orders sent to nearly all grantees. Our legal papers explain that the refusal to spend funds appropriated by Congress for foreign assistance violates the separation of powers principle in our Constitution, as well as numerous statutes. And the result is wreaking irreversible damage on programs that keep millions alive.
In this case, the court ordered the administration to lift its freeze and stop-work orders while the case is litigated. The administration has refused to comply with the court’s order, thereby prolonging the suffering of millions who rely on these programs and demonstrating a staggering disregard for both the rule of law and human life.
More Ways Public Citizen Is Fighting Back
Public Citizen is fighting back on multiple fronts. We are identifying plaintiffs to strengthen legal challenges, mobilizing coalitions, and organizing global allies. We recently hosted a high-level discussion at Public Citizen’s headquarters building with key partners, featuring Loyce Pace, former head of Global Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, to strategize responses to this unprecedented crisis.
We are helping affected communities navigate the fallout through the CHANGE Network, a fast-growing coalition of more than 1,000 HIV and community health advocates worldwide. We are producing critical analysis, such as our report The Fate of Flu, which exposes the dangers of the administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization for pandemic preparedness. We are providing translation support, uniting advocates, and amplifying impacted voices.
And we are taking this fight to the streets—protesting outside the State Department, demanding the restoration of HIV funding, and refusing to let these attacks go unanswered.
Global Health Is Not Charity. It’s Survival.
The Trump administration has framed global health aid as a luxury the U.S. can no longer afford. But global health is not charity—it is an essential investment in stability, survival, and justice.
The programs under attack don’t just save lives—they create resilience. PEPFAR has not only provided antiretroviral treatment to millions but also strengthened entire health systems, training over 340,000 healthcare workers in regions hardest hit by HIV. WHO’s disease surveillance network has detected and contained deadly outbreaks before they spiral into global crises. USAID-supported immunization programs do more than prevent outbreaks—they anchor fragile healthcare infrastructures, ensuring that millions of children receive routine care in places where hospitals are scarce.
Gutting these programs isn’t just shortsighted—it is an act of political violence against the world’s most vulnerable. When health systems collapse, pandemics spread. When prevention is abandoned, suffering multiplies. The U.S. cannot afford to turn its back on global health—morally, strategically, or economically.
Dismantling Global Health: A Shift in Global Influence
With the U.S. abandoning its global health commitments, a leadership vacuum is emerging—one that geopolitical rivals are well-positioned to exploit. Health aid has long been a cornerstone of U.S. diplomatic engagement, securing partnerships, fostering goodwill, and strengthening global stability. Now, by walking away, the U.S. is forfeiting its ability to shape international health priorities, leaving other nations to set the agenda.
Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program, put it bluntly: “The idea that some lives matter less—that it’s acceptable to cut off millions from treatment, to leave children unvaccinated, to dismantle systems that protect the vulnerable—is an outrage and a moral failure. Public Citizen will not allow this to go unchallenged.”
Maybarduk warned: “This is not just a policy dispute—it is a death sentence for millions. The administration knows exactly what it is doing. By abandoning global health commitments, it is condemning people to avoidable deaths, greater suffering, and the collapse of critical health systems. The harm will not be undone.”