The Trump administration's controversial decision to slash research on chronic diseases has sparked concern among experts and researchers. In 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) director, Jay Bhattacharya, claimed that the agency was merely clearing out the clutter, but experts have since provided data to refute this explanation. A new report from the Senate health committee reveals deep cuts into research on leading causes of death in the United States, including Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
These conditions are also among the favorite talking points of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. In his 2025 inauguration speech, Donald Trump vowed to "end the chronic disease epidemic," a promise repeated by Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr., who has focused on nutrition and environment as key factors.
Given RFK Jr.'s emphasis on "diet-related chronic disease," one might expect he'd be a fan of Lisa Goldman Rosas, a Stanford epidemiologist whose funding was terminated. Rosas, who studies how diet affects human health, estimates that at least 1 million US deaths could be prevented each year if every American ate a healthy diet. However, the administration's actions have been confusing and contradictory.
Many studies have been canceled for perceived connections to DEI, even the most tangential. This has affected everyone by limiting our broader understanding of human health and disease. Rosas' work was cited in the Senate report alongside other major investigations into chronic disease that the administration has defunded.
The drastic cuts have not gone unnoticed. In the budget bill Congress passed last week, lawmakers rejected the president's proposed budget, which would have cut spending on biomedical research in half. The NIH received $47 billion for the upcoming year—a slight increase over 2025.
However, the NIH staffer I spoke with doesn't foresee an end to the administration's meddling. The employee explains that it's no longer about what's being cut but what's being politicized and restricted now. The future of research funding remains uncertain, and the impact on people with chronic conditions is a cause for concern.
