Trump is waging a war on America's children — and he's winning

President Trump's administration is waging war against children, especially those in our nation's poorest families. Here are a few of the fronts on which that undeclared war is being fought, with devastating consequences for the next generation of Americans. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act made massive cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, leaving millions of children in low-income families without access to health insurance, adequate and healthy food and, in some cases, learning and developmental services in public schools. Roughly 40 percent of American children receive health coverage through Medicaid. Although the bill's work requirements do not apply to children, they lose coverage when their parents do. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cuts will increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 7.5 million in 2034. The budget office also projects that SNAP spending will decline by $211 billion through 2035. An analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates 1.5 million children, conservatively, have lost benefits since July 2025. Further reductions are likely as states are forced to pay a larger share of the program's administrative costs. The 2025 bill did increase the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 to $2,200. But it left intact rules that prevent many low-income families from receiving the full credit. As a result, 30 percent of all children and 99 percent of those from the poorest one-fifth of families won't benefit from the increase. Each of these individual policies is onerous, but the collective impact is especially damaging, since many families will be hurt by all of them. The Trump administration's vaccine policies have put children at risk as well. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his handpicked appointees have promoted vaccine skepticism, parental choice and limits to state requirements that children be vaccinated before they start school. They claim, without evidence, that COVID-19 vaccines have killed children and that vaccines cause autism. As a result, vaccination rates are falling. The share of kindergartners exempted from one or more required vaccines has increased from 2.2 percent in 2020-2021 to 4.2 percent in 2025. Only 92 percent of kindergarten students now get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, well below the 95 percent needed for herd immunity. The consequences are not hypothetical. Americans have experienced the largest measles outbreak in three decades, with the vast majority of cases among unvaccinated children. Yet Trump's Aug. 10 executive order pares back the number of recommended childhood vaccines and calls for splitting the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separately administered shots — changes strongly opposed by mainstream medical organizations because they will leave many more children vulnerable to preventable diseases. That same month, the Trump administration proposed deregulating Head Start, one of the country's most important programs for poor children. Head Start provides preschool, child care, meals and support services to about 700,000 children, many of them homeless, in foster care or disabled. The administration has already closed half of Head Start's regional offices. Now it intends to reduce the federal overhead payments from 15 percent to 5 percent and eliminate or dilute national standards governing student-teacher ratios, educational requirements, medical screenings, program hours and other services. The administration claims these changes will reduce costs and allow Head Start to serve more children. But this approach removes requirements intended to bolster program quality. Project 2025, it is worth noting, advocated eliminating Head Start. The administration's approach will, at a minimum, dramatically reduce its effectiveness. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of children whose parents have been arrested, detained or deported, or fear they will be, are suffering serious and lasting effects. Faced with economic instability, loss of housing, absence from school, fewer doctor visits, and sometimes foster care, they experience separation anxiety, headaches, stomach aches, difficulty sleeping and eating, and anxiety and depression. More than 12,000 children and their parents or sponsors have been arrested following tips from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, an office that previously maintained a sharp separation between child-welfare responsibilities and immigration enforcement so parents would not be prevented from reuniting with their children. Trump's war on children doesn't stop at America's borders. Researchers estimate that reductions in health care, nutrition, clean water and sanitation caused by the evisceration of USAID will lead to the deaths of about 4.5 million children under the age of five by 2030. The administration insists its policies will reduce wasteful spending, encourage work, promote parental rights, enforce immigration laws and return authority to the states. But wars are — and should be — measured by their casualties. Across an extraordinary range of administration policies, children, who are least able to protect themselves, are 'collateral damage.' 'Children are the world's most valuable resource,' President John F. Kennedy proclaimed, 'and its best hope for the future.' Apparently, the Trump administration does not agree. David Wippman is emeritus president of Hamilton College. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.