Trump's World War

From Gaza to Ukraine, from African villages to American towns and cities, Trump’s waging a war on children, with deadly consequences.

In Gaza, 11-year-old Samir Muhammed Samir Zekut lies at home fighting for his life after losing his left leg, his right arm, and suffering severe internal injuries in an Israeli airstrike that tore apart his body.

• On Saturday, reports The Guardian, the Trump administration announced "it would stop issuing visas to children from Gaza in desperate need of medical care after an online pressure campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer close to Donald Trump who has described herself as 'a proud Islamophobe.'"

In Yemen, when 2-year-old Maryam arrived at a clinic in May, she was near death from hunger and weighed only 11 pounds. Aid workers were able to revive her and she began to recover. But then the Trump administration abruptly terminated the USAID program. After that, Michelle Nunn, the president of CARE, told the New York Times' Nick Kristof, aid workers don't know if Maryam survived.

• Maryam is just one of 2.3 million Yemeni children, half of whom are under 5, who are acutely malnourished, reports Amnesty International.
• According to the National Institutes of Health, "the loss of USAID funding for malnutrition programs is a direct threat to the health and survival of millions of children worldwide."
• In July, a study in The Lancet estimated that "if the current cuts continue through 2030, 14 million people who might have otherwise lived could die."

In Ukraine, when USAID programs were frozen under Trump's 20 January 2025 executive order, services for war-affected children and families were abruptly terminated. Meanwhile, UNICEF reported that the number of Ukrainian children killed or injured by Russian strikes tripled between March and May 2025.

• According to UNICEF: "222 children were killed or injured between 1 March and 31 May 2025, compared to 73 between 1 December 2024 and 28 February 2025. The ongoing use of explosive weapons in populated areas has been particularly deadly and destructive."

Also in Ukraine, reports RFE/RL, more than 19,500 children have been deported to Russia since Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 in what one Ukrainian NGO calls "state-sponsored child trafficking." According to Medill News Service, Trump first paused, then "gutted" America's sophisticated efforts to return these kidnapped children.

Globally, as many as 1.2 million children could die over the next five years as a result of the Trump administration pulling funding for Gavi, the global vaccine initiative that has vaccinated one billion children.

In Ohio, Deanna Szente, the mother of 2-year-old Ryin Johnson, who has autism and is nonverbal, has "high hopes" that the Medicaid-funded treatment he is receiving will have long-term benefits. According to The 74, Ryin’s treatment "may unlock his ability to communicate and learn when he starts preschool in the fall. It might even help him eventually speak." But, starting in 2027, the massive Medicaid cuts in Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" put treatments like this at risk and could rapidly diminish the ability of children from low-income families to learn and do well in school. In addition to the therapies, tablet and the TouchChat program Ryin uses, reports The 74:

• Medicaid also covers such school-related items as eyeglasses, hearing aids, and microphones for teachers to use to communicate with children with hearing difficulties. Other devices and care, such as inhalers for asthma and dental coverage provided by Medicaid help make sure kids don’t miss school and add to the chronic absenteeism problems hurting kids academically.

"I’m terrified," Szente said. "I’m scared for when my son gets older, what we’re going to have to do to be able to make sure that he can go see a doctor. And I’m scared for my older two, if I’m still going to be able to provide Medicaid for them."

In New York City, reports Chalkbeat, Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" is set to eliminate funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education ("SNAP-Ed") program that currently allows Ana Garcia, 41, and her 3-year-old son, Elliott, to afford a weekly Food Box at the Goodhue Community Center on Staten Island. SNAP-Ed's proven ability "to help people on a limited budget eat healthier and shop smarter, teach children and families how to cook meals from scratch, and promote physically active lifestyles," would seemingly align with the "Make America Healthy Again" movement, but Trump's cutting it anyway.

• "Changes to SNAP, including new eligibility rules," reports Chalkbeat, "could result in hundreds of thousands of parents losing their food benefits. In all, New York state is facing up to $1.4 billion in annual SNAP cuts and cost shifts, with the state expected to start covering $1.2 billion for the program by October 2027.

"Not just in New York, but nationwide, we will see increases in child hunger," said Dr. Jennifer Cadenhead, a research assistant professor at Columbia’s Teachers College.

Trump's policies are killing children at home and abroad

Each day, children around the world are dying because of the harmful policies enacted by Trump since he returned to office in 2025.

Trump's cuts to global food and medical aid mean hunger and disease are spreading. Infants are dying of malnutrition. Gravely injured children are being blocked from the medical care that could save them. Illegally trafficked kids are being abandoned.

Within the US, Trump's ruthless attacks on healthcare, education, vaccines, and the environment are making food insecurity worse, hampering early childhood development, and putting children at risk for both infectious and chronic diseases.

Trump is a psychopath. He proves that time and time again. Whether he's telling supporters to die for him during Covid or demonstrating zero empathy for Epstein's child victims today.

And the effects of his policies are exactly as advertised. American kids are "falling through the cracks." African mothers are dreading the day they have to "bury another a child."

In 2025, Trump is waging a world war on children. And the results are devastating.

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