IN ITS FIRST MONTH, the new Trump administration has shocked the world with a daily stream of actions and plans that fundamentally alter US national values and our role in the world. The results will be catastrophic for global food insecurity, treatments for HIV, TB, and malaria, US leadership in research and science, and all aspects of global health and human rights. With these actions, half a century of commitment to humanitarian aid and global health affecting millions of children and adults around the world has been abandoned. The actions include executive orders and agency directives that are summarised in Table I, and program terminations in Table II. At this fragile moment in US and world history, we cannot look away. It is essential to review these actions and take stock of their potential impact on science, global health, and human rights.
The extraordinary actions include a challenge to the birthright citizenship that is a constitutional right in the US, a purge of language and a freeze on all funding that supports efforts to address diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (‘DEIA’), an assault on the rights and the very existence of transgender individuals, and a ban on language and programs that support gender diversity and non-binary individuals in the US and around the world.
