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The Billionaire Bloodletting: Trump and Musk Slash Vaccines, Condemn Millions to Die [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-28
While Donald Trump and Elon Musk hold rallies and post memes, children around the world are dying preventable deaths—because of them.
In a move as cruel as it is calculated, the Trump-Musk administration has pulled the plug on global vaccine funding, gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and canceling over $880 million earmarked for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. This isn’t about “efficiency” or “America First.” This is about power, profit, and ideology—delivered at the cost of millions of lives.
Mass Death, by Design
Gavi has helped vaccinate over a billion children since 2000 and is credited with preventing nearly 19 million deaths. But Trump and Musk don’t see value in saving poor kids from measles or yellow fever. In their worldview, human life is only as valuable as its voting power or stock price—and children in Sub-Saharan Africa don’t move either.
They know what these cuts will do. Public health experts have said it plainly: without this support, over a million people could die from diseases that were nearly eradicated. That’s not collateral damage. That’s the plan.
The Numbers Don’t Lie—But Trump and Musk Do
While Trump spews conspiracies about foreign aid being a “scam” and Musk posts memes calling USAID “a criminal cartel,” the actual fallout is horrifying. Not just for Gavi, but across the board:
$262 million cut from UNAIDS.
Major setbacks to malaria, polio, and TB programs.
Entire supply chains for vaccines and medicines collapsing in real time.
They want you to think they’re draining the swamp. In reality, they’re draining hospital wards and vaccine clinics—replacing hope with body bags.
Exporting Authoritarianism, One Dead Child at a Time
Trump praises dictators like Xi Jinping for their “strength,” while Musk jokes about ruling by decree. But now their admiration for authoritarianism has morphed into imitation. By centralizing power, silencing dissent, and gutting institutions like USAID, they’re building an American government in the image of those they claim to fear.
And while they play pretend emperor at home, they’re pulling America out of the global health arena—leaving China to swoop in and offer vaccines, medical supplies, and infrastructure. Trump doesn’t care. His goal isn’t global leadership. It’s revenge. And the victims are mostly Black and brown children who’ll never make the front page of a U.S. paper.
This Is Not a Policy Dispute. This Is a Crime.
Let’s stop pretending this is about politics. Trump and Musk are knowingly causing the deaths of millions of people through preventable disease. If a foreign leader did this, we’d call it genocide. If a terrorist group withheld vaccines, we’d call it biowarfare. When Trump and Musk do it, we call it "budget reform."
This is mass murder disguised as governance.
What You Can Do
Please tell your Members of Congress to support humanitarian aid. You can find their name and phone number here .
The U.S. foreign aid freeze has forced many frontline organizations to halt operations, impacting millions globally. Without HIV/AIDS treatment provided by the US, 6 million people could die over the next four years. Unlock Aid is raising an emergency fund with no overhead to help sustainable organizations resume their work. Please consider donating .
And most importantly—remember this. Because history will. And the names Donald Trump and Elon Musk will be written beside a death toll too large to ignore.
Let’s make sure the blood on their hands never washes off
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