TRUMP'S WAR ON KIDS
"KIDS DON'T VOTE? F*ck 'Em"
When Your Administration's Children's Policy Can Be Summarized on a Bumper Sticker
There's a political calculus so cynical, so breathtakingly cruel, that it almost demands respect for its sheer audacity. Almost. The Trump administration has apparently discovered that children—those freeloading little non-voters—don't actually show up at the polls. And if there's one thing this administration understands, it's that if you can't vote, you don't matter.
Welcome to Trump's War on Kids, where the unspoken motto seems to be: "Kids Don't Vote? F*ck 'Em."
The Department of Education Gets the Thanos Snap
In the latest salvo of this war, Education Secretary Linda McMahon—yes, the former WWE executive, because apparently running a wrestling empire is perfect training for body-slamming public education—announced on Tuesday that the Department of Education is being dismantled like a Lego set at a toddler's tantrum.
Where's it all going? Glad you asked! In a bureaucratic shell game that would make a three-card monte dealer blush, the administration is scattering education programs across federal agencies like a piñata explosion:
- Department of Labor gets the $20 billion Title I program for low-income schools. Nothing says "we care about poor kids' education" like handing it to the agency that handles unemployment claims.
- Department of the Interior takes over Native American education. Because the agency that manages national parks is obviously the natural home for Indigenous students' futures.
- Department of Health and Human Services gets campus child care programs. At least this one almost makes sense, which is probably an accident.
- Department of State handles international education grants. Because diplomats definitely have time between negotiating treaties to worry about study-abroad programs.
What could possibly go wrong with this game of federal agency hot potato, played with the futures of 50 million schoolchildren?
"But Schools Stayed Open During the Shutdown!"
The administration's defense of this educational demolition derby? During a recent government shutdown, schools remained open even with Education Department staff furloughed. Checkmate, liberals!
By this logic, we should also eliminate the Fire Department because your house didn't burn down last Tuesday. Flawless reasoning.
Project 2025: The Sequel Nobody Asked For
This isn't just policy chaos—it's part of the carefully orchestrated Project 2025, the Christian nationalist fever dream that treats public education like a vampire treats sunlight. The goal? Privatize everything, scatter federal oversight to the wind, and return to the good old days when education was a luxury, not a right.
In this worldview, children have no rights except through their parents. Kids aren't citizens with their own protections and futures—they're property, accessories to adult ideology. It's the "children should be seen and not heard" philosophy, except now they shouldn't be educated either.
The Greatest Hits Album of Harming Kids
But wait, there's more! The dismantling of the Department of Education is just the lead single. Here's the full album of Trump's War on Kids:
Track 1: "Healthcare? More Like Health-Don't-Care"
Slashing Medicaid, CHIP, and children's mental health programs while youth suicide rates climb. But hey, at least we're saving money that can be given to... checks notes ...billionaires.
Track 2: "Let Them Eat Nothing"
Cutting SNAP benefits and eliminating summer meal programs. Hungry kids learn better, right? Oh wait, no, that's the opposite of true.
Track 3: "Vaccine Hesitancy (The Remix)"
Undermining vaccination programs during a time when preventable diseases are making a comeback tour nobody wanted.
Track 4: "Climate Change? Climate Who Cares"
Environmental deregulation exposing children to pollutants and toxins. Future generations will surely appreciate inheriting a planet that's both uninhabitable and poorly educated.
Track 5: "Family Separation (The Trauma Edition)"Immigration policies that rip families apart, causing developmental harm that lasts lifetimes. But at least we're being tough on... children?
The Global Tour
Nicholas Kristof reports that this war on kids isn't just domestic—it's gone international! The administration is defunding PEPFAR, the HIV/AIDS program that saved millions of lives. Because why stop at harming American children when you can harm children worldwide?
Starvation is a solvable problem. We have the food, the resources, the therapeutic treatments. What we apparently don't have is the political will to care about children who can't vote, donate to campaigns, or attend Mar-a-Lago fundraisers.
The Math Is Simple, The Morality Isn't
Bruce Lesley has documented 21—count 'em, TWENTY-ONE—major policy attacks on children. From defunding PBS (Big Bird is apparently a national security threat) to eliminating civil rights protections for LGBTQ kids, from cutting child abuse investigation funding to closing regional offices that oversee child welfare.
ProPublica reports that federal databases for child support enforcement are being gutted, meaning single parents won't get the payments they're owed. Child exploitation investigation grants? Gone. Mentoring programs? Eliminated.
It's almost impressive in its comprehensiveness. If you're going to wage war on children, apparently you go all in.
The Legality Question (Spoiler: It's Probably Illegal)
Here's a fun detail: McMahon is doing all this without congressional approval. You know, Congress—that branch of government that actually has the constitutional authority to create and eliminate federal departments?
Legal experts and Democratic lawmakers are calling this an "outright illegal effort" to bypass the legislative branch. But when has a little thing like "the law" or "the Constitution" ever stopped this administration?
The Quiet Part Out Loud
What makes this particularly galling is the honesty of it. There's no pretense anymore. The administration looked at children—vulnerable, voiceless, voteless children—and made a cold calculation: they don't matter politically.
- Poor kids? Don't vote.
- Kids with disabilities? Don't vote.
- LGBTQ kids? Don't vote.
- Immigrant children? Definitely don't vote.
- Native American students? Don't vote.
- Kids who need mental health services, school lunches, clean air, protection from abuse? None of them vote.
- So f*ck 'em.
- The Future Is Expensive (So Let's Not Invest In It)
The cruel irony is that every dollar cut from children's programs costs us exponentially more down the line. Hungry kids don't learn. Sick kids don't thrive. Traumatized kids struggle. Uneducated kids can't compete in a global economy.
But that's a future problem, and this administration has never been big on planning ahead. Why invest in the future when you can give tax cuts to the present (wealthy)?
What Now?
The organizations fighting back—First Focus on Children, the Center for American Progress, Democracy Forward, and countless others—are doing heroic work. But they're fighting a coordinated, ideological assault that treats children as collateral damage in a culture war.
This isn't about "returning power to the states" or "eliminating red tape." This is about abandoning a national commitment to children's welfare, education, and futures. It's about deciding that in the hierarchy of American priorities, kids rank somewhere below corporate profits and above... actually, I'm not sure what they rank above anymore.
The Bottom Line
Kids don't vote. But they grow up. And they'll remember who fought for them and who decided they were expendable. They'll remember which party dismantled their schools, cut their healthcare, eliminated their protections, and scattered their futures to the wind.
They'll remember that when they needed advocates, they got Linda McMahon playing Jenga with the Department of Education.
They'll remember the message this administration sent loud and clear: "You don't matter."
And one day—maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually—those kids will vote.
Sleep tight, Republicans. The children are watching.
The Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment, presumably because they were too busy transferring the Department of Responding to Comments to the Department of Agriculture.
TRUMP'S WORLD WIDE WAR ON KIDS WITH BRUCE LESLEY AND NICHOLAS KRISTOF https://open.substack.com/pub/ru4people/p/trumps-world-wide-war-on-kids-with
The Unprecedented War on Children - by Bruce Lesley https://brucelesley.substack.com/p/the-unprecedented-war-on-children
How Kids Are Harmed by Trump’s Budget Cuts — ProPublica https://www.propublica.org/article/how-trump-budget-cuts-harm-kids-child-care-education-abuse
Don’t Let the Trump Administration Dismantle the Department of Education | NEA