The real reason behind Trump's obsession with babies

With Mother’s Day this Sunday, I wanted to raise a real problem — but one that’s being grotesquely distorted by Trump and his lackeys.

Births in the United States increased by just 1 percent in 2024, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s nearly a record low.

It means ever-fewer workers supporting ever-more retirees. There are now about 3 workers for every retiree in America. That ratio is projected to drop to about 2 workers per retiree in just five years.

It’s a real problem, but Trump’s vow to remedy it — he’s calling for a $5,000-per-birth “baby bonus” and says he wants to be known as the “fertilization president” — has nothing to do with solving it.

Like so much of what he touts, Trump’s “remedy” is a pretext for something else.

He and his regime are not interested in more babies or children in America. Their real aim is to discourage abortion and encourage more traditional male-dominated nuclear households. In other words: patriarchy.

Project 2025, the regime’s policy blueprint, opens with a chapter on how to “restore the family as the centerpiece of American life,” urging traditional roles for parents.

JD Vance — who makes a point of appearing at public events with his three children — has called the nation’s declining birth rate a “civilization crisis” driven by “cat ladies” on the “childless left” who disdain nuclear families and traditional gender roles.

Last week, Elon Musk (who reportedly has 14 children with four different women), wrote on X that “low birth rates will end civilization.” He claims that “the childless have little stake in the future.”

If the Trump regime had a genuine interest in increasing the number of young Americans, it would be encouraging more immigration — since immigrants are younger than the U.S. population as a whole.

But, of course, the Trump regime is discouraging immigration. It’s even behind a congressional proposal to charge a $3,500 fee for Americans who sponsor immigrant children — thereby making it harder for minors who cross the border alone to be released from federal custody and taken in by family members in the United States.

And if the regime really wanted to encourage more Americans to have children, it would ease the growing financial burden on families and on single mothers — one of the biggest reasons why Americans have been deciding not to have children.

$5,000 doesn’t get close. Hell, the average cost of infant care in America is $14,000 per year (and up to $25,000 a year in high-cost-of-living areas).

As Kristin Lawless points out, recent estimates find that mothers are working 97 hours per week in the home. If they were paid accordingly, it would amount to $115,000 per year — which includes 13.2 hours as a day care teacher, 3.9 hours as household CEO, 7.6 hours as a psychologist, 14.1 hours as a chef, 15.4 hours as a housekeeper, 6.6 hours doing laundry, 9.5 hours as a PC or Mac operator, 10.7 hours as facilities manager, 7.8 hours as a janitor, and 7.8 hours driving the family car.

Of course, no one is proposing anything close to that for mothers.

To the contrary, the Trump regime is busy making it more expensive for people to have kids.

According to a new report by ProPublica, billions of dollars in funding for poor schools, for school meals, and for school safety have been slashed by Trump and Musk.

The staff of a program that helps millions of poor families keep the electricity on, in part so their babies don’t die from extreme heat or cold, have all been fired.

The federal office that oversees the enforcement of child support payments has been decimated.

Funding has been terminated for investigating child sexual abuse and internet crimes against children, responding to reports of missing children, and preventing youth violence.

The Department of Agriculture has canceled more than $600 million in grants to farm-to-school programs that had been providing fresh meat and produce to school cafeterias.

In addition, Trump’s new budget includes staggering cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), which provides food assistance to 1 in 5 children. It would also alter the school meal programs, making it more likely that low-income, eligible children miss out on meals.

Head Start preschools are being shut down.

The Education Department just halted $1 billion for mental health services for children. As a result, schools will no longer be able to hire psychologists, counselors, and mental health workers. The department says that the programs are no longer in “the best interest of the federal government.”

Since when has that been the criterion? Programs should be in the best interest of children.

The Department of Health and Human Services has dismissed all staff that had distributed $1.7 billion annually to the states to run their child welfare, day care, foster care, and adoption systems, including birth family visitation, caseworker training, and more.

In many cities and towns across America, local child support, child welfare, and child care services are disappearing because of the cutbacks.

Soon on the chopping block, it appears, will be Medicaid — which insures nearly half of all children in the United States and covers 1 in 5 women of childbearing age.

So when you hear Trump talk about being the “fertilization president,” know that he couldn’t care less about America’s declining birth rate.

He and his regime care about the decline of America’s patriarchy.

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone.

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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/