Flying Blind by Design: The Trump Administration's Deliberate War on Public Health
The Trump administration is deliberately blinding the U.S. by cutting vital health surveys on food insecurity, drug use, and mortality. This isn't austerity; it's a war on data.
You cannot fix a problem that you refuse to measure. This isn't just a management cliché; it is the central operating principle of the modern right-wing assault on government. To justify starving the beast, you must first blindfold it.
And that is exactly what the Trump administration is doing.
In a breathtaking, malicious offensive against basic science and public good, the administration has waged a quiet war on the nation's public health infrastructure. This isn't about "trimming the fat" or "fiscal responsibility." This is a deliberate, ideological campaign to dismantle the government's ability to see, measure, and respond to the very crises it helps create.
By systematically terminating the experts and statisticians responsible for our most critical national health surveys, the White House is ensuring that when it comes to the well-being of its citizens, the United States will be flying fucking blind.
The Axe Falls on Health and Human Services
The assault has been as sweeping as it is devastating. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the nation's top public health agency, has been bled dry. In March, the department hemorrhaged some 20,000 employees. As if that wasn't enough, another 1,100 positions were recently terminated.
These aren't faceless bureaucrats. These are the scientists, researchers, and data managers who run the very systems that tell us who is suffering, who is dying, and why. Their termination is a strategic decapitation of the nation's eyes and ears.
The administration’s official line is a predictable fog of deflections. HHS has suggested some recent layoffs are on hold due to a court order, but refuses to comment on whether it will ram them through the moment the order is lifted. They offer no plan for how these critical databases will be maintained.
The silence is the point. The goal isn't to improve these systems; it's to kill them.
Manufacturing Ignorance: A Target on Every Vulnerable Population
The surveys being dismantled are not abstract academic exercises. They are the foundational data that inform policy on everything from the opioid crisis to food stamps. The administration's targets are precise, and they reveal a chilling motive: if you can't count the problem, you don't have to pay to solve it.
1. Erasing the Addiction and Mental Health Crisis
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) has been the bedrock of our understanding of substance use and mental health for over half a century. It’s how policymakers know where to allocate funding for treatment and services.
In April, the administration laid off all 17 people in charge of it. The entire team. Gone.
At a time when overdose deaths continue to shatter records, this act is nothing short of state-sanctioned negligence.
2. Pretending Hunger Doesn't Exist
Next on the chopping block was the Household Food Security Reports, which tracks food insecurity across the country. The administration's justification for ending this survey is a masterclass in Orwellian projection: it claimed the reports were "redundant, costly, politicized, and did nothing except fearmonger."
This is, to put it mildly, complete bullshit.
This survey has had bipartisan support for decades precisely because it saves money by ensuring food assistance programs are targeted to those who actually need them. The administration isn't cutting this survey because it's "politicized"; it's cutting it because the data it produces is politically inconvenient. It's hard to justify tax cuts for billionaires when your own data shows children are going hungry.
3. Hiding the Bodies: Gutting Vital Statistics
In perhaps the most ghoulish move, the administration cut the majority of the staff behind the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). This system tracks all births and deaths in the U.S. It reports on our leading causes of death and, critically, our disgraceful maternal mortality rates.
Alongside this, the entire team running the National Death Index (NDI) was terminated. This little-known database is the connective tissue for countless long-term studies. It's how researchers compare the health of veterans to non-veterans. It's how we understand the long-term health outcomes of older adults.
When you fire the people who count the dead, you are making a clear statement: you do not give a shit about why they died, or how to stop it from happening again.
4. Sabotaging Nutrition and Safety
Finally, the administration laid off the planning team for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). This is arguably the most comprehensive health assessment in the nation. It informs dietary guidelines, monitors our exposure to environmental toxins, and even dictates food labeling.
While HHS has reportedly backtracked on some of these specific layoffs, the message is clear. From the food we eat to the toxins we breathe, the administration would prefer we all remain in the dark.
The Catastrophe of Willful Blindness
Former public health officials are, rightfully, sounding the alarm. They warn that these cuts are "like flying blind." Without this data, the country has no way to prioritize public health work, identify emerging threats, or know if its interventions are working.
It is, as one expert noted, potentially "catastrophic."
This manufactured ignorance has real-world consequences. It means the next pandemic threat could emerge unseen. It means maternal mortality, especially among Black women, will continue to skyrocket while the government pretends it has no data to act on. It means veterans will die from service-connected illnesses while the studies that could have saved them are strangled in the cradle.
The Hypocrisy Is the Point: Data for Me, But Not for Thee
If you want proof that this isn't incompetence but a calculated, malicious strategy, look no further than the administration's handling of the bird flu.
When H5N1 became widespread on U.S. farms, the administration didn't defund data collection. It did the opposite. It continued and expanded the nationwide testing of dairy milk. This program allowed them to identify infected herds and quickly contain the virus.
The result? The CDC announced an end to the bird flu emergency in July. Infections plummeted.
This is the smoking gun. The Trump administration knows data-driven monitoring works. They embrace it when it serves the interests of capital and protects commercial assets like dairy farms.
But when the data is needed to protect the poor, the addicted, the mentally ill, new mothers, or veterans? The spigot is turned off, the experts are fired, and the data is labeled "fearmongering."
This isn't a government shutdown temporarily pausing research grants. This is a targeted demolition. It is the architectural blueprint of austerity: first, you destroy the evidence that a social safety net is necessary, then you destroy the safety net itself.
This is not governance. It is sabotage.