--- title: Trump Has Abandoned His Affordability Promises description: Trump’s decision to fund war abroad instead of care for families at home isn’t just a dangerous mistake, it's deeply unpopular, write Ai-jen Poo and Reshma Saujani. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/04/16/trump-has-abandoned-his-affordability-promises/ author: Ai-jen Poo article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-04-16T13:00:00.767Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-13T06:52:13.004Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Trump Has Abandoned His Affordability Promises og:description: Trump’s decision to fund war abroad instead of care for families at home isn’t just a dangerous mistake, it's deeply unpopular, write Ai-jen Poo and Reshma Saujani. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/04/16/trump-has-abandoned-his-affordability-promises/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt565ee9ffe76ee45f/69e04ccefd89ad4b087d5533/Donald-Trump-Gold.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald-Trump-Gold.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Has Abandoned His Affordability Promises twitter:description: Trump’s decision to fund war abroad instead of care for families at home isn’t just a dangerous mistake, it's deeply unpopular, write Ai-jen Poo and Reshma Saujani. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt565ee9ffe76ee45f/69e04ccefd89ad4b087d5533/Donald-Trump-Gold.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  IDEASTime ideas # Trump Has Abandoned His Affordability Promises by [Ai-jen Poo](https://time.com/author/ai-jen-poo/) and [Reshma Saujani](https://time.com/author/reshma-saujani/) Ai-jen Poo is the president of Care in Action. Reshma Saujani is the founder and CEO of Moms First. Apr 16, 2026 1:00 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media outside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, April 13, 2026. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media outside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, April 13, 2026.Salwan Georges—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Ai-jen Poo](https://time.com/author/ai-jen-poo/) and [Reshma Saujani](https://time.com/author/reshma-saujani/) Ai-jen Poo is the president of Care in Action. Reshma Saujani is the founder and CEO of Moms First. Apr 16, 2026 1:00 PM UTC “We can’t take care of day care. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We’re fighting wars,” he said [during](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-not-possible-us-pay-medicaid-medicare-daycare-re-fighting-w-rcna266381) a private Easter luncheon at the White House. “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country.” Across the political spectrum, American families disagree. Every day, Americans from different walks of life tell us they want many of the same things when it comes to care: options, affordability, more quality time with their families, and less stress. Eighty-eight percent of voters[ support](https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2024/10/2/a-bipartisan-majority-of-voters-support-expanding-medicare-to-include-coverage-for-long-term-in-home-care-services) expanding Medicare to include long-term care services. Eighty five percent of voters[ support](https://nwlc.org/resource/2024-election-night-survey-results/) increasing federal funding to states to help parents afford child care. During the last election, President Trump seemed to understand that care was the linchpin of affordability. One of us even[ asked](https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/06/politics/video/childcare-trump-vance-policy-reshma-saujani-lead-digvid) then-candidate Trump what he would do to make child care more affordable, and his response went viral. “Childcare is childcare… you have to have it,” he [said](https://www.econclubny.org/documents/10184/109144/20240905%5FTrump%5FTranscript.pdf). “We’re going to make this into a country that can afford to take care of its people and then worry about the rest of the world.” Instead of delivering on [his](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgl63lrpkmo) [promise](https://rncplatform.donaldjtrump.com/) to “make America affordable again,” Trump has undermined some of America's most basic care systems. The Trump Administration’s 2025 budget law cut federal health spending by more than [$1 trillion](https://www.kff.org/medicaid/health-provisions-in-the-2025-federal-budget-reconciliation-law/), including major cuts to Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces. They also proposed [eliminating](https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2026-acfc-cj.pdf) Preschool Development Grants, while seeking [additional cuts](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf) to family planning and maternal and child health programs. These cuts fuel an agenda mired in chaos, cruelty, and now foreign wars. The only thing consistent is President Trump’s inconsistency. America’s families are paying the price. Almost [half](https://www.urban.org/research/publication/update-2023-measuring-true-cost-economic-security) of American families can’t afford basics like housing, food for their kids, or gas for their cars. And their number one expense? Care. Child care now[ costs more than housing](https://19thnews.org/2025/06/child-care-costs-rising-home-costs/) in some states. Fifty-five percent of parents[ say](https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/study/raising-children/) they’ve gone into debt to pay for child-related expenses. When it comes to caring for aging and disabled loved ones, the[ cost](https://www.aarp.org/press/releases/long-term-care-affordability-sharply-worsening-for-middle-income/) of in-home long-term care has surged by 50% in the last 5 years. Last year alone, the[ price of home care increased by another 10%](https://www.axios.com/2025/10/30/trump-immigration-elder-care), more than three times the rate of inflation. Since re-taking office, the President and his administration have [gutted Medicaid](https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/articles/news/commentary/what-do-cuts-to-medicaid-really-mean), the largest source of funding for in-home care, instead funding violent [ICE operations](https://19thnews.org/2025/07/trump-big-beautiful-tax-law-numbers/) and giving [billionaires](https://www.americanprogress.org/article/1-trillion-in-medicaid-cuts-1-trillion-in-tax-giveaways-for-the-richest-1-percent-the-one-big-beautiful-bills-budget-math/) huge tax breaks. That’s on top of Trump’s [tariffs](https://time.com/7273506/trump-tariffs-us-consumer-impact/) that have already raised families’ day-to-day expenses. Now, Trump has led the United States into a historically [unpopular](https://time.com/7382231/iran-us-israel-war-support-polling-trump-republicans-democrats/) war with Iran that costs American taxpayers[ nearly $900 million per day](https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/06/politics/us-war-iran-cost). Meanwhile, American families pay more at the pump and brace themselves for the next upheaval. Trump is even asking Congress for [$1.5 trillion](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/news-wrap-trump-seeking-1-5-trillion-for-military-spending-in-new-budget) to fund his war, paid for by cuts to health care, nutrition, medical research, and more. The President has raised the specter of fraud to justify deep cuts to programs like Medicaid and Medicare, but he’s the one running the biggest one: he ran on [affordability](https://time.com/7381496/trump-affordability-economy-inflation-prices/) and [no new wars](https://time.com/7295729/trump-middle-east-war-iran-risk/). Now, [prices](https://time.com/article/2026/03/18/gas-groceries-war-in-iran-cost-of-living-crisis/) are up and we’re reading headlines about [boots](https://time.com/article/2026/04/02/trump-iran-off-ramp/) on the ground in [Iran](https://time.com/article/2026/04/07/Iran-war-Trump-MAGA-youth-vote-midterm/). In 2025, candidates ran and won with care at the top of their affordability agendas. From [Abigail Spanberger](https://time.com/7380680/abigail-spanberger-trump-state-of-the-union-democrats-response/) in Virginia to [Zohran Mamdani](https://time.com/7308924/zohran-mamdani-interview-time/) in New York, families voted for candidates who promised to lower the cost of child care and finally make paid family and medical leave a reality. This spring, state legislatures have also taken action. The [Georgia](https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/HB1118/2025) State Senate just voted unanimously on an expansion of maternity leave for state employees, and [West Virginia](https://www.wsaz.com/2026/04/04/landmark-child-care-bill-becoming-law-west-virginia/) is now offering tax credits to businesses that offer their employees child care. This isn’t happening by accident. It’s happening because 130 million caregiving families and parents in red and blue states alike are coming together and demanding it. That includes[ over 38 million family caregivers](https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/topics/ltss/family-caregiving/cgus-2025-caring-across-states/caregiving-in-the-us-2025-caring-across-states.doi.10.26419-2fppi.00383.001.pdf) who live in states that Trump won in the last election. They are making it clear with their votes and voices that the President is wrong. We _are_ a big country, which means we absolutely can afford to take care of our children, help our aging and disabled loved ones live independently and with dignity, and make sure workers don’t lose pay because they’re seriously ill or welcoming a new child. We just need leaders willing to prioritize our families and then get to work. For a President elected on the promise of putting America First, Trump is instead putting America last. Voters want funding for care, not foreign wars. And in November, they’ll have their say at the ballot box. [TIME Ideas](https://www.time.com/ideas) hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. 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