Over the past century, each generation of Americans has been healthier than the one before. But under President Donald Trump, that may no longer be true.
A stunning sprint in scientific discovery from the 1920s onward basically eradicated communicable diseases such as polio, rubella and measles. Other public health measures have helped Americans live longer and longer. We took cigarettes out of restaurants, put seatbelts in cars and stopped painting teething rings with lead.
Trump’s policies may be undoing decades of medical advancement that have long made American children healthier than their parents.
But while Trump is seeking to revive the Presidential Fitness Test for schoolkids, his policies may be undoing decades of medical advancement that have long made American children healthier than their parents.
In 2018, the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion said there were zero cases of measles recorded in the U.S. that didn’t come from someone visiting from another country. So far in 2025, there have been over 1,300.
This rise is in line with the drop in the childhood vaccination rate for measles, which has fallen 8% since 2023. Many researchers believe the drop is tied to the spread of inaccurate information about vaccines throughout social media, which will only be made worse by the fact that vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now heading the Department of Health and Human Services.
“It’s just really unfortunate that children, young adolescents, and young adults are suffering from a completely avoidable disease because of not receiving a vaccine when they were young,” says Brigid Groves, a spokeswoman for the American Pharmacists Association.
Last week, Groves’ organization received word from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that its members, who’ve been helping shape recommendations about vaccines for over 25 years, are now considered part of a “special interest group” and therefore too “biased” to contribute to the committee’s work. Members of other well-established and long-respected groups of health care practitioners also received this notice, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Meantime, while overall lifespan has risen, the gap between life expectancy for children born in the U.S. and those born in other large, wealthy countries has gotten larger — widening most notably after the first Trump administration responded to Covid-19 by deliberately weakening testing, making recommendations that ignored scientific consensus and, in one case, musing that people could maybe inject bleach inside their bodies to stop the disease.
To be fair, this is not just a Trump-era problem. Although the U.S. spends more on health care than any other country, we seem to be less able than other countries to harness the incredible advancements in medical science made in recent decades. And the widest gap has always been among Americans themselves: Black and Native Americans live an average of 15 to 20 years less than white and Asian Americans.
But it’s becoming increasingly clear that the administration’s policies — for all their stated focus on children’s well-being and making America healthy again — will only make young people’s health worse.
More children are being diagnosed with cancer today than in the 1970s.
More children are being diagnosed with cancer today than in the 1970s — and the National Institutes for Health plans to fund less than half the cancer research it once did, including for pediatric cancer. The Trump administration is also rolling back regulations on cancer- and climate change-causing chemicals in drinking water and air, even though the last 10 years have been the hottest humanity has ever seen.
In addition to the health impacts of fossil fuel emissions, extreme heat itself worsens many conditions including heart disease, asthma and multiple sclerosis. Rather than heeding scientists’ advice to curtail climate change by reducing carbon emissions, the administration has thrown its weight into deregulating pollution, stalling renewable energy, uplifting fossil fuels and helping corporations build energy-guzzling AI bots (which the American Psychological Association says present their own threats to children’s well-being).
The “big, beautiful” tax reconciliation bill, called a threat to children by the American Academy of Pediatrics and passed on July Fourth, will cut $1 trillion from spending on care for kids from low-income families by slashing Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It will also kick an estimated 12 million people off their care over the next decade, including children and adolescents. That’s on top of at least 5.13 million young people who have already lost care through Medicaid and CHIP as they were automatically disenrolled.
The bill also imposed complex administrative burdens that will make it too hard for many people who technically qualify to remain enrolled. Those who are able to stay on Medicaid will see it become more expensive. And even kids who keep their care will suffer if their parents can’t access the care they need.
These cuts will also lead to hospital closures, especially in rural areas. When hospitals stay open, they are more likely to be without facilities for pregnancy care and labor and delivery, putting still more babies in danger and reducing reproductive care access — just when more young people are likely to become pregnant due to abortion bans, Planned Parenthood defunding and school curriculums with incomplete sexual health information being pushed as the Department of Education is dismantled.
The lack of maternity care will worsen existing disparities, creating even greater risk for pregnant Black women who are already three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. In-patient pediatric care units, which are already disappearing as 1 in 3 closed from 2008 to 2022, will face deeper funding cuts and greater strain. This year is the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act — and the Trump administration celebrated by rolling back provisions designed to make sure disabled children and adults alike can access businesses and public spaces, including healthcare facilities. The administration’s particular interest in targeting LGBTQ+ young people, who are more likely to experience mental health issues, means they will have more trouble accessing compassionate help as resources like The Trevor Project helpline are shut down. Their ability to live safely as themselves will be hampered by attempts to prevent teachers from affirming queer identities in school, affecting their well-being. Young trans people, whose health care is being attacked by Kennedy in his unscientific, widely criticized report on youth gender-affirming care and being dismantled by the Supreme Court, are particularly at risk of losing life-saving health care. “What we know gender-affirming care does for people’s health [is reduce] suicidal ideation and depression and anxiety symptoms,” says nurse practitioner Sophia Nurani, a gender-affirming care provider with over 10 years of experience in community health centers. “I think compounded with reduced resources for mental health inpatient and outpatient [treatment], we’re headed for a complete disaster and huge setbacks.” Schools are also seeing their crucial role in public health for young people erode. Every level from kindergarten to college will face a rollercoaster of funding uncertainty and increasingly become sites of exclusion and fear. Transgender girls and young women are banned from competitive sports at the college level, and facing further bans from school sports. Meanwhile, children are being abducted by an increasingly empowered Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the administration’s violent and illegal crackdowns on immigrant families are leaving children without their parents and caretakers or sending them to places where they face danger and lack access to health resources. All of these actions are coupled with a degradation of the information available about health. Crucial datasets and resources, especially those about the health of marginalized communities like queer people and those from racial minorities, are being altered or scrubbed from government websites. Recently published research from the University of Texas suggests that “information environment” should be considered a social determinant of health akin to socioeconomic class or location. In other words, young people who spend more and more time in digital environments rife with mis- and disinformation about health are at higher risk of being sicker. This may seem like a bleak litany — and it’s far from comprehensive. While this administration ran on bold statements about concern and care for America’s children, its actions tell a different story. But it’s not all bad: Trump’s decision to revive our proud national tradition of forcing kids to watch one another do push-ups and sprint between walls will probably require schools to keep employing gym teachers, even amid funding uncertainty. Hopefully they weren’t counting on the students having a nutritious lunch afterward. Subscribe to the Project 47 newsletter to receive weekly updates on and expert insight into the key issues and figures defining Trump’s second term.
Lindsay Lee Wallace
Lindsay Lee Wallace is a journalist focused on culture, health and technology. She has written and reported for outlets including BBC, Teen Vogue, Xtra and Time. 
