Why do Donald Trump and the Republican Party want to destroy our health?

by Barbara Jatkola, Jaffrey NH in Keene Sentinel, 10/4/2025

More specifically, why do they want to prevent Americans from getting the healthcare they need by (1) blocking access to Medicaid, (2) ending subsidies for health insurance obtained through the exchange set up under the Affordable Care Act, and (3) increasing Medicare premiums by reducing the amount of money targeted for that program—all so that billionaires can receive bigger tax cuts? 

Why are they dismantling the medical research infrastructure by defunding universities and other research facilities, in particular those focused on finding new treatments and cures for cancer? 

Why are they calling into question the efficacy of and need for vaccines that have protected the people of this country, and countries around the world, from deadly diseases for decades? Why do they want to encourage measles epidemics, the return of polio, and the spread of viruses such as Covid-19 when it has been proven that vaccines are effective against these illnesses? And why are they cutting funding for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs? 

Why are they forcing rural healthcare facilities to close by, in essence, defunding them? Why are they creating maternal care “deserts” throughout the country by threatening family planning clinics and ob-gyn practitioners with legal actions and funding cuts? Why do they want people who live in these areas to have to drive hundreds of miles to get basic medical care? 

Why do they want Americans to go hungry by cutting SNAP and other food programs? And while we’re at it, why do they want American farmers to fail because the government won’t buy the food it asked them to grow and because Trump’s tariffs have resulted in countries such as China refusing to purchase their crops? 

Never before have a presidential administration and a political party declared war on the American people in such an insidious way. It’s puzzling and shortsighted, because the members of the Trump administration and the Republican Party are all susceptible to the same illnesses and diseases, the same lack of access to care, the same hunger and tariffs. 

Have you ever heard the expression “Don’t poop where you eat”? Trump has convinced his followers to do just that, and all of us must suffer the consequences. But why?