The first yr of the second Trump administration was a bountiful one for billionaires, together with the President himself.
It was a bleak yr for tens of millions of infants right here and world wide.
Trump and his household added about $4 billion to their private backside line in 2025, based on Forbes and different monetary information organizations. That’s billion with a b.
The whole wealth of the 935 U.S. billionaires elevated by 22 p.c final yr, reaching roughly $8.2 trillion. The mixed wealth held by the highest 5 U.S. billionaires is greater than $1 trillion. That’s trillion with a t.
In the meantime, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress minimize greater than $1 trillion from applications that feed, dress, shelter, educate, immunize, and supply well being care and drugs for youngsters right here and world wide.
Extra cuts are coming.
Final yr, for each $100 in discretionary federal spending, the U.S. devoted $1.59 to youngsters underneath the age of three. Trump’s proposed 2026 finances would scale back that to 88 cents, accounting for inflation.
“Budgets are ethical paperwork. They reveal what a nation chooses to spend money on and whom it chooses to worth,” Bruce Lesley, president of First Deal with Youngsters, a nonpartisan advocacy group primarily based in Washington, wrote final month in his annual report, “Infants within the Finances.”
“A nation that underinvests in infants pays the value later — in larger well being care prices, weaker instructional outcomes, misplaced productiveness and wages, deeper inequality, and an uncompetitive future,” Lesley wrote. “Conversely, a nation that places infants first reaps returns for generations. This isn’t ideology. It’s economics. It’s neuroscience. It is not uncommon sense.”
In 2025, it was not frequent apply.
USAID
Starting final February, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, presided over the dismantling of the USA Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID), America’s international help program.
At Trump’s behest, Musk laid off practically all of USAID’s 13,000 workers and canceled practically all of its help contracts world wide.
Maternal and youngster well being help was lowered 88 p.c. Epidemics and rising illness surveillance was lowered by 87 p.c. Programming for household planning and reproductive well being was lowered 84 p.c.
“USAID is a felony group. Time for it to die,” Musk, an immigrant from South Africa, defined on X a yr in the past.
Not everybody sees it that method.
USAID funding “has performed a decisive function in decreasing preventable mortality over the previous 20 years,” The Lancet, a extremely revered, peer-reviewed medical journal, reported earlier this month.
USAID’s efforts to fight infectious ailments and malnutrition have saved 92 million lives — together with 30 million youngsters underneath age 5 — over the previous 20 years, The Lancet reported.
The Lancet’s research initiatives that international help cuts may result in as many as 9.4 million further deaths by 2030. About 2.5 million of these deaths are projected to be youngsters underneath the age of 5.
The dismantling of USAID “has already induced the deaths of 600,000 folks, two-thirds of them youngsters,” based on Boston College epidemiologist Brooke Nichols.
Musk ended 2025 with a internet value of $428 billion, based on Forbes.
The USAID (and associated State Division) cuts saved U.S. taxpayers about $50 billion.
ICE
Whereas the Trump administration was demolishing U.S. international help to youngsters world wide, it was detaining and deporting foreigners and their youngsters within the U.S.
Trump’s “One Massive Lovely Invoice,” enacted by Congress final summer season, practically doubled funding for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), including $75 billion to the company’s finances over the following 4 years.
ICE’s annual finances is now bigger than the mixed budgets for all native and state legislation enforcement companies, based on the Brennan Middle for Justice, a nonpartisan coverage institute.
Whereas Musk was firing practically 12,000 USAID employees, ICE was hiring 12,000 further armed and masked brokers to trace down, detain, and deport “the worst of the worst unlawful aliens.”
Final month, the Division of Homeland Safety reported that “DHS eliminated greater than 670,000 unlawful aliens together with murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists from American communities and one other two million have self-deported” in 2025.
However based on DHS data analyzed by the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, solely 5 p.c of these detained and/or deported by ICE have been convicted of violent crimes. Greater than 70 p.c of them would not have felony data.
Unauthorized entry into the U.S. is a misdemeanor, not a felony. Being within the U.S. with out authorization is a civil offense, not a felony one.
The Trump administration “is losing billions of {dollars} on deporting peaceable people who find themselves a fiscal and financial profit to the USA and are valued by their U.S. citizen households and buddies,” David J. Bier, director of immigration research for the Cato Institute, wrote final December.
As of January, about 73,000 persons are being held in ICE detention services, a document excessive. Most of them are households — fathers, moms, and their youngsters who’ve been taken out of their houses, automobiles, companies, and neighborhoods by armed males sporting masks.
That features no less than 3,800 youngsters — and 20 infants — since Trump took workplace final yr. Not less than 1,000 youngsters had been held longer than 20 days, a courtroom-ordered restrict on youngster detention. Not less than 32 folks died in ICE custody final yr and no less than 8 have died or been killed this yr.
Trump’s mass deportation marketing campaign has targeted on giant cities led by Democratic mayors, together with Memphis.
ICE’s forces have been bolstered by native and state police forces by means of 287(g) agreements that deputized native officers to determine, course of, and detain noncitizens for potential elimination throughout their common duties or whereas in jail.
In December 2024, there have been 135 such agreements throughout the nation. A yr later, there have been 1,236 in 40 states, together with greater than two dozen in Tennessee.
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner signed a proper 287(g) settlement with ICE in November. Bonner stated the settlement solely permits ICE officers to “determine and course of” immigrants at present in jail.
“A whole bunch of Memphis households have been separated, their youngsters traumatized, and very important parts of our group torn aside,” Tyler Foster, vp of Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Motion and Hope (MICAH), wrote to Mayor Paul Younger earlier this month.
SNAP
The surge in ICE funding got here from final summer season’s “One Massive Lovely Invoice Act” — as named by Trump and accepted by Republicans in Congress.
The invoice was particularly useful for the wealthiest U.S. residents.
It lowered taxes by $500 billion for the 200,000 households with annual incomes of greater than $2 million. General, it supplied $1.4 trillion in tax cuts to households with incomes over $500,000 a yr.
The invoice was particularly dangerous to the poorest U.S. infants and youngsters.
It lowered federal Medicaid spending by round $800 billion and federal spending for the Supplemental Diet Help Program (SNAP) by $187 billion over a decade. These had been the most important cuts in every program’s historical past.
Medicaid and SNAP account for practically half of all federal spending on infants, infants, and toddlers. Round 50 p.c of U.S. youngsters rely on some type of Medicaid for healthcare protection. About 60 p.c of SNAP recipients are in households with youngsters.
First Deal with Youngsters estimates that 34 million youngsters, or roughly 45 p.c of all U.S. youngsters, now depend on SNAP or Medicaid. Roughly 14 million youngsters are in “double jeopardy,” susceptible to shedding each meals and well being care advantages.
“Tennessee already struggles with excessive charges of medical debt, hospital closures, and youngster starvation,” stated Michele Johnson, government director of the Tennessee Justice Middle. “This invoice will make these issues worse and push extra households into disaster.”
That doesn’t rely the unknown variety of youngsters and households who will lose well being care protection attributable to Trump-led cuts and different modifications within the Inexpensive Care Act.
Insurance coverage premiums will greater than double this yr for many ACA recipients, based on estimates from the Kaiser Household Basis (KFF), a nonpartisan well being coverage analysis group.
A million fewer folks enrolled in an ACA plan this yr. As much as 16 million persons are projected to lose well being care protection by 2034.
“The mixed impact of those insurance policies is anticipated to disproportionately affect decrease-earnings, working-class, and minority communities,” the Financial Coverage Institute reported.
The immigration crackdown isn’t simply holding children from going to high school.Three in 10 immigrant dad and mom report their youngsters delayed or skipped well being care up to now yr.
“These are youngsters going with out preventive checkups, therapy for sickness, or administration of continual circumstances at a important time of their growth,” KFF reported in November.
The immigration crackdown and the security-internet cutbacks are placing tens of millions of kids right into a triple jeopardy.
“When about half of kids rely on Medicaid and CHIP for well being care protection, and 1 / 4 have an immigrant mum or dad, it’s essential to grasp how these coverage threads weave collectively — and the way they intensify an already dire state of affairs for scholar psychological well being,” Anne Dwyer, a professor on the Georgetown College McCourt Faculty of Public Coverage’s Middle for Youngsters and Households, wrote final month.
Individuals who care for youngsters are seeing the dire affect.
Physicians at LeBonheur Youngsters’s Hospital handled about 50 fewer sufferers for gunshot wounds final yr, as in comparison with 2024. However the variety of youngsters handled for abuse was larger than ever.
“The variety of gunshot victims already was declining earlier than the Memphis Protected Activity Drive, however we’ve acquired even fewer since, and that’s nice,” stated Dr. Regan Williams, LeBonheur’s medical director of trauma providers. “What worries me most are the youngsters we’re not seeing,” Williams stated. “The youngsters who usually are not coming to the hospital as a result of their households are afraid of ICE.”
$TRUMP
Just a few days earlier than Trump began his second time period in January 2025, the Trump household began promoting two meme cash — $TRUMP and $MELANIA. The two crypto cash earned the household $300 million, based on Forbes.
General, the Trump household has acquired about $1.4 billion from crypto initiatives since he was re-elected, based on monetary analyses by the Monetary Instances and different impartial information organizations.
Billionaires had been pleased to assist.
In February 2025, Justin Solar, a Chinese language-born crypto billionaire, purchased $75 million in crypto tokens from the Trump household’s World Liberty Monetary, a non-public agency that borrows, lends, sells, and trades cryptocurrency. Solar’s stake helped usher in an extra $550 million to the corporate.
Just a few days later, the Securities and Change Fee placed on maintain its pending case towards Solar, who was charged in 2023 with promoting unregistered crypto securities.
Final March, World Liberty introduced that it might promote USD1, a kind of cryptocurrency often known as stablecoin, backed with quick-time period U.S. Treasury payments.
Final Could, Eric Trump and Justin Solar introduced that an organization owned by the ruling household of the United Arab Emirates was shopping for $2 billion value of USD1.
Two weeks later, President Trump declared that the U.S. would supply superior pc know-how to the U.A.E.
Final summer season, U.A.E. officers stated they plan to make use of the Trump household’s USD1 cryptocurrency as fee for a stake in Binance, the world’s largest crypto change.
Binance’s controlling stockholder is Changpeng Zhao, one other crypto billionaire. In 2023, he pleaded responsible to expenses he enabled cash laundering throughout his time main the corporate. He spent 4 months in jail.
Final June, a brand new Emirati fund, the Aqua 1 Basis, introduced that it might purchase $100 million in World Liberty tokens.
Final October, Trump pardoned Zhao.
Trump made one other $27.7 million final yr by licensing his title, based on his 2025 monetary disclosure type. That features $1.1 million from a Trump guitar, $2.8 million from Trump watches, $2.5 million from “sneakers and fragrances,” $3 million from an illustrated e book referred to as “Save America,” and $3 million from a “God Bless the USA” Bible.
Billionaires additionally added to different parts of the Trump household’s 2025 portfolio.
Every week after Trump took workplace for the second time, Meta (which owns Fb and Instagram) agreed to pay the President $25 million to settle his 2021 lawsuit towards the corporate.
Meta is owned by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, the fourth richest man in America.
In February, X agreed to pay Trump $10 million to settle his 2021 lawsuit towards the social media firm. X is owned by Musk.
In July, Paramount (which additionally owns CBS) agreed to pay Trump $16 million for what he claimed was the misleading enhancing of a 2024 Kamala Harris interview.
Three weeks later, the Federal Communications Fee accepted Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance. Skydance (and now Paramount and CBS) is owned by billionaire David Ellison, son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, the third richest man in America.
In September, Google (which owns YouTube) agreed to pay Trump $24.5 million to settle his 2021 lawsuit towards the corporate. Google is owned by Larry Web page, the second richest man in America.
Final summer season, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced AI contracts of as much as $200 million every with 4 AI firms both owned completely or largely by Google, Amazon, and X.
Final week, Hegseth introduced that the U.S. army will start integrating Musk’s synthetic intelligence device, Grok, into “each unclassified and labeled community” all through the Pentagon.
In earlier weeks, Hegseth made comparable bulletins about Blue Origin (owned by Bezos) and Gemini (owned by Web page).
Trump is now value a document $7.3 billion, up from $4.3 billion in 2024. The $3 billion acquire vaulted him 118 spots to No. 201 on The Forbes 400.
“I believe everyone, the American public, consider it’s absurd for anybody to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency,” White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt advised reporters final yr.
KIDS
A few yr in the past, the White Home trumpeted the President’s efforts to assist youngsters.
“President Donald J. Trump is aware of America’s youngsters are our future — and he’ll by no means cease combating for his or her proper to a wholesome, productive upbringing and childhood,” the White Home introduced.
The announcement listed six achievements.
• President Trump made it the official coverage of the U.S. authorities that there are solely two sexes.
• President Trump ended the unfair, demeaning apply of forcing ladies to compete towards males in sports activities — which resulted within the NCAA altering its guidelines.
• The Division of Training launched investigations into the California Interscholastic Federation and the Minnesota State Excessive Faculty League over their failures to conform.
• Well being methods throughout the nation stopped or downsized their intercourse change applications for minors following President Trump’s “Defending Youngsters from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” government order.
• President Trump ended the unconventional, un-American indoctrination of America’s youngsters by eliminating assist for divisive, radical “gender ideology” and “fairness ideology,” and defending dad and mom’ rights.
• President Trump banned COVID-19 vaccine mandates at faculties that obtain federal funding.
David Waters is Distinguished Journalist in Residence and assistant director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting on the College of Memphis.
