President Donald Trump boarding Air Force One on September 7, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok/Flickr)
President Donald Trump often describes himself as a champion of "pro-family" policies — a message aimed at his hardcore MAGA base and far-right Christian fundamentalist evangelicals. And Vice President JD Vance has taken that messaging a step further, attacking specific Democrats as "childless cat ladies" for not having biological children — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), former Vice President Kamala Harris and ex-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
But The New Republic's Grace Segers, in a biting article published on New Year's Eve Day 2025, lays out a variety of Trump administration policies that she says are harmful to families.
"Since entering the White House for the second time," Segers observes, "President Donald Trump has explicitly cast himself as a 'pro-family' president. His administration has frequently adopted the language of the pronatalist movement, promoting ideas and policies intended to encourage Americans to have children. But many of the ostensibly family-oriented policies proposed by the White House and approved by Congress this year will primarily benefit higher-income households, leaving millions of lower income families in the lurch."
Segers attacks a long list of Trump positions, from tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy to health care policies to "dramatic changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and Medicaid."
"The loss of SNAP benefits for families with children may in turn have a larger impact on society as a whole," Segers argues. "According to research by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, every $1 lost in benefits for families with children would cost society between $14 and $20. Nearly 40 percent of all SNAP participants are children."
The number of Americans lacking health insurance decreased significantly during Joe Biden's presidency, but Segers warns that failing to fund subsidies for the Affordable Care Act of 2010, AKA Obamacare, will reverse that.
Larry Levitt, executive vice president of policy at KFF, told The New Republic, "In health care, it would be hard to find anything that's a positive for families."
Levitt, according to Segers, "noted that the pending expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies will affect middle-income households, who will face far higher insurance costs in the new year."
"As such, millions of Americans may opt out of any health coverage rather than paying higher premiums," Segers warns. "Although moderate-income children may be able to receive health care through the Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage for children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, a parent unable to afford their own health care through the Affordable Care Act marketplace may opt out of coverage for themselves."
Read Grace Segers' full article for The New Republic at this link.