A truth guide for the State of the Union address
In advance of tomorrow’s State of the Union address, child advocates are here to warn you: don’t be fooled. We fully anticipate President Trump will frame his Administration as pro-child, but White House and executive branch actions over the last year have been anything but.
Since taking office, this White House has platformed some child-focused initiatives, such as savings accounts and tax credits for children. But even in the best cases, these efforts mostly improve the lives of a select group of kids while leaving others behind. More commonly, this Administration has brought chaos to institutions that serve the health, safety, and well-being of all children.
We offer below five truths as a guide to watching Tuesday’s address.
1. This Administration Enacted the Biggest Cuts to Medicaid, CHIP, and SNAP in U.S. History Through H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill”
On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law the biggest cuts to Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in U.S. history, taking away more than $1 trillion in federal funds that support essential health care and nutrition programs that serve millions of low-income children and their families. Nearly half of U.S. children rely on Medicaid or CHIP for health care coverage — everything from well-child visits to asthma maintenance to cancer care. Sixteen million children rely on SNAP, which not only supports their nutrition, but also keeps them healthy, improves their educational outcomes, and promotes a more stable homelife.
Together, the big beautiful bill’s big ugly impacts on kids make it one of the most consequential pieces of legislation for children of this generation. The White House’s insistence on H.R. 1 put billionaires over babies, and children in unprecedented peril.
A side-by-side analysis of the bill’s provisions illustrates how structural changes combine with program cuts to impact nearly every aspect of children’s lives. The full consequence of this bill will only be revealed as states are forced to limit eligibility or enact their own, additional cuts to other essential child services to make up for lost federal funding.
2. The White House is Dismantling Institutions That Protect Kids
USAID and Foreign Assistance
The dismantling of USAID and the consolidation of foreign assistance under the State Department’s new America First Global Health Strategy fundamentally changed the structure and goals of U.S. foreign aid in a way that marginalizes children. Last year, the Administration rescinded a total of $13 billion in foreign assistance. These dollars represent life-saving medical care and wrap-around support services for children.
- The Administration’s abrupt termination of PEPFAR’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children programs left 6.6 million OVC and their caregivers without support and caused documented preventable death and suffering.
- In July, the Administration chose to incinerate 500 metric tons of emergency food — enough to feed about 1.5 million children for a week — rather than distribute it.
- An estimated 500,000 children have died as a result of discontinued funding and a new study projects 4.5 million children under five could die by 2030 due largely to U.S. funding cuts.
Department of Education
The Department of Education exists to make sure every student, regardless of family income, ZIP code, or disability, is able to receive a strong and equitable education. Yet, this Administration has made closing the department a priority.
- In March, the Department of Education initiated mass layoffs, nearly halving its workforce and drastically lowering the capacity of the agency. Leadership then attempted to further gut personnel by issuing widespread Reduction In Force notices during the record-long government shutdown this past fall, until a continuing resolution by Congress required the Administration to reinstate the federal employees.
- In December, the Administration announced interagency agreements that would transfer department responsibilities to other agencies. Redistributing and scattering the department’s responsibilities would complicate federal monitoring of states’ K-12 accountability, disproportionately harming underserved student groups such the nation’s 26 million low-income students and 7.5 million students with disabilities.
- A new GAO report found that 247 Office of Civil Rights staff, who handle reports of discrimination in schools, were placed on paid administrative leave in March 2025 and were not allowed to work for nearly nine months. The report also showed that of the more than 9,000 discrimination complaints received in 2025, roughly 90% of the resolved cases were closed through dismissal.
3. Federal Officials Have Sowed Distrust Around Children’s Health
The “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) campaign represents a key tenet of this Administration. Yet the MAHA report released this fall by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offers a long list of issues with no strategy or proposals to address them.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is, however, taking action on vaccine policy — and not for the better.
- Secretary Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which provides recommendations for immunization schedules in the U.S. Then he fired the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez, reportedly because of her refusal to approve vaccine recommendations that lacked evidence.
- Following these dismissals, HHS dropped the number of officially recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 10, and stifled research and approval of new, vital vaccines.
This lack of federal policy and guidance forces parents to become their own experts on childhood vaccines — a task made harder in the absence of programs and professionals that the Administration has dismissed. These changes, along with other incorrect health information spread by the White House, has left parents and caregivers confused about who to trust and how to best protect their children’s health. The Administration’s decisions also have limited access to vaccines and threatened the research, production, and approval of new vaccines.
The Administration is promoting its anti-vaccine agenda as an on-going measles outbreak has caused more than 900 new cases in 2026, making it one of the worst years for U.S. measles infections since 2000.
4. President Trump Has Implemented Immigration Policies That Harm Children
The daily detention rate of children has increased six-fold under the Trump Administration, with close to 4,000 children held by ICE in 2025.
Detention centers pose major health concerns for kids, who have reportedly endured poor food and putrid water used for baby formula and, at one center holding young children, a measles outbreak. In Texas, pregnant girls are being grouped into a single shelter that lies hours away from specialized obstetric care.
In addition to detention, this Administration’s enforcement practices have endangered millions of U.S. children, regardless of citizenship status. The Administration has reversed protections for sensitive locations including hospitals, schools, and child care centers, subjecting kids to trauma, such as having teachers arrested at work, parents detained on the way to pick up kids from school, and ICE officers staking out health clinics and interfering with care.
These encounters can be physically and emotionally harmful to children, and also prompt parents to keep kids out of school and away from venues where they would receive health care and other essential services to try and safeguard them.
Children must be protected, and not harmed, by immigration policies.
5. The Administration Has Eliminated, Disrupted, or Cancelled Funds That Support Children
The United States chronically underfunds children. While kids make up about a quarter of the population, spending on children has ranged from 12% of the federal budget in FY 2022 to just 7% in FY 2020, an all-time low reached during the last Trump Administration. The President’s proposed FY 2026 budget suggested slashing real discretionary spending on children by nearly 24%, and would have dropped the share of discretionary spending on children to just 5.81% of all discretionary spending.
In 2025, the Trump Administration went beyond just underfunding children by repeatedly threatening, interrupting and attempting to unilaterally cancel existing dollars for kids.
- An OMB memo in January showed plans to rescind money for Head Start and other federal programs dedicated to children.
- In July, the Administration attempted to claw back more than $6 billion in congressionally appropriated funds for education and afterschool programs.
- During the 2025 government shutdown, the Administration withheld funding that led to the first interruption in children’s SNAP benefits in history.
- The Administration announced a $10 billion freeze of child care and TANF investments across five states last month that specifically threatened low-income children. All five states are led by Democrats.
Public outcry, advocacy efforts, and judicial intervention helped overcome these attempts and kept funds flowing to their intended communities. But uncertainty about the future continues to hamper these programs and providers.
In addition, at multiple points during the year, the Administration fired or threatened to fire tens of thousands of federal employees who administer programs vital to children, including in child care, infant mortality, mental health, and other critical, child-centered programs. The Administration specifically targeted children with disabilities, with new proposed rules and reductions in workforce.
These examples offer just a snapshot of the damage the Trump Administration has inflicted on the nation’s children and its determination to continue this process. Regardless of what is said or promised in tomorrow’s State of the Union address, lawmakers and voters dedicated to the well-being of children around the country and the world must remember that every issue is a children’s issue and to continue working to make children a priority in all federal budget and policy decisions.