Trump’s war on truth is causing real harm

Enough Americans now distrust the scientific basis of vaccines that the efforts to eradicate measles are now in jeopardy.

Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer Amy Nham reviews measles screening forms at an intake center for new arrivals in Chicago during the 2024 Chicago measles outbreak. (Amy Nham/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

By Jeff Nesbit

This week marks the culmination of the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second term as president, and one thing has become dangerously clear: misinformation by Trump, Elon Musk and senior administration officials is causing serious damage to the American people’s health, trust and pocketbooks.

As if we needed yet another daily reminder, the director of the National Science Foundation (the bedrock of federal funding for every non-medical branch of the sciences in America) resigned Thursday in response to efforts by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to fire hundreds of NSF employees and terminate thousands of grants for the study of things the Trump administration doesn’t like—including research on misinformation.

But the Trump White House is doing much more than just terminating research grants about propaganda and misinformation: It’s waging a literal war on science, evidence, facts, and the truth—day in and day out. And it’s taking a human toll.

Look at just three examples: the tariff chaos, the measles outbreak and the GOP’s Medicaid con. There are a lot of other examples in which the Trump administration’s willful, deliberate misinformation is causing real harm. But these three are good illustrations.

Let’s start with the measles outbreak. Thanks to the lifesaving MMR vaccine, measles had been largely eradicated in America. Not now. It’s poised to roar back. Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services announced massive personnel cuts to the ranks of federal public health officials who track outbreaks like measles and potential epidemics like bird flu.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has publicly obfuscated on the efficacy of the measles vaccines, downplayed the deadly threat of the outbreak at a Trump Cabinet meeting, and attacked vaccines at every opportunity. As of today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—which Kennedy’s HHS has hollowed out—has tracked over 800 cases of measles that have led to the tragic deaths of three people, including two children.

Kennedy has claimed that the measles vaccine kills people every year, that it causes “all the illnesses that measles itself causes” and that the vaccine’s protection wanes so much that older adults are “essentially unvaccinated.” All these allegations are false. Instead of the “radical transparency” Kennedy and Trump said they would bring to HHS, they’ve blocked the release of a measles forecast that emphasized the importance of vaccination and kept the CDC from holding regular briefings for media and public experts about the outbreak.

The result? A new poll out this week from the Kaiser Family Foundation says that the Trump administration’s war on truth has taken hold in America. Enough Americans now distrust the scientific basis of vaccines that the previous herculean public health efforts to eradicate measles are now in jeopardy.

The KFF poll asked 1,380 adults about three false claims: that the MMR vaccine for measles is more dangerous than getting the disease, that the vaccine causes autism in children, and that Vitamin A can prevent measles infection. None of these things is true, but this misinformation has swirled constantly in the first 100 days of the second Trump administration.

The American people are being exposed to false claims about measles, and it’s sowed considerable confusion. "What we have seen is that a large share of people are at least somewhat uncertain about how to evaluate that misinformation," Liz Hamel, KFF’s director of public opinion and survey research, told NPR.

This misinformation about measles has put all of us at risk. A new forecast shows that there will be millions of measles cases over the next 25 years if vaccination rates drop another 10% from current levels. By failing to embrace the lifesaving vaccine that eliminated measles 25 years ago and degrading the public health infrastructure that could protect Americans, Trump’s war on truth is making America sicker.

Then there is the Trump administration’s random, chaotic tariff war. He threatened an all-out trade war with China—which spooked financial markets globally -- then hinted about lowering tariffs on China, which whipsawed the markets yet again. No one knows what to believe—not the markets, not world leaders, not businesses small and large that might be considering capital investments, and not consumers who are watching their life savings go south and prices on everything from eggs to cars start to skyrocket.

Trump’s war on economic truth has nearly every economist and financial leader in America predicting a recession. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, said on Wednesday that he now sees the American economy likely headed into a recession, almost solely because of Trump’s tariffs and the chaos they’re causing in financial markets. “I think probably [a recession i] a likely outcome,” Dimon said on Fox Business’ “Mornings With Maria” show.

What is most apparent about Trump’s daily stream of misinformation on tariffs and the trade deals he claims to be negotiating is that there is no strategy and nothing sustainable about his rationale for his confusing and disastrous trade agenda. That’s what has consumers and financial leaders spooked. It’s hitting everyone’s pocketbooks hard.

And then there is Medicaid. Ever since Republican members of the House of Representatives walked the plank for Trump on a budget bill and voted to cut the popular Medicaid program by $880 billion to pay for tax cuts for millionaires, Trump surrogates and GOP House members alike have been flat out lying about their plans to cut Medicaid in the upcoming reconciliation fight.

First, Trump, Musk and other administration surrogates misinformed the nation by claiming that they could find $880 billion in “waste, fraud and abuse” in the Medicaid program. When that misinformation effort quickly unraveled, they pivoted to plan B – which is for the GOP Senate and House to end or reduce the federal match for Medicaid expansion to mask how and why they’re cutting $880 billion from the Medicaid program.

Here is the new Trump/GOP Medicaid plot in short: 1) end the federal match for Medicaid expansion, which will result in people being kicked off the popular health coverage program; 2) put the burden on governors and states to make hard budget choices while Trump and the GOP Congress misinform the public about who exactly is to blame for the Medicaid cuts; and 3) shift both blame and costs to states (including red states), which will be forced to either drop coverage for Medicaid expansion adults, limit benefits, or cut already low provider payments.

This slick piece of misinformation on who is gutting Medicaid expansion by Trump and his surrogates will allow Trump and the GOP Congress to dodge any responsibility for cuts that could put coverage for as many as 20 million people at risk in dozens of Medicaid expansion states—including red states like Missouri.

This Medicaid plot will erode the American people’s trust in the federal government even further as people blame the states—and not Trump or the GOP Congress—as millions are kicked off Medicaid.

These three misinformation dramas have played out in just the first 100 days of Trump’s second term. There will be many more of in the coming weeks and months. The open-ended question is whether most Americans will be able to see through this fog of misinformation to properly understand who is to blame for outbreaks, pandemics, recessions, and deep cuts to popular health and social safety net programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.

Jeff Nesbit was the public affairs chief for five Cabinet departments or agencies under four presidents.

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