“MAGA” and “MAHA” are actually “M.A.P.S.”:
MAKING AMERICA POORER and SICKER.
Since Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, billionaire Elon Musk, known for his Nazi sympathies and eugenics conspiracies, along with vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy (RFK Jr.) have served as “tips of twin spears” stabbing into the country’s economic stability, public health, and social welfare.
With the support of Messrs. Musk and Kennedy, Trump secured victory in the 2024 presidential election.
The President-elect subsequently incorporated the two men and their respective organizations into his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement. Mr. Musk established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to synchronize his corporate and personal brands with MAGA. At the same time, RFK Jr transformed his crackpot wellness movement into “Make America Healthy Again” or “MAHA.”
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Image credit: Kevin Dietsch and Getty Images.
Yesterday, Public Health Policy Reviews discussed the Trump administration’s new student debt collection efforts as a precursor to addressing the harmful effects of MAGA and Project 2025 policies on low-income and working-class Americans.
We wish to expand on those themes today to illuminate the many ways that MAGA, Project 2025, DOGE, and MAHA will result in a country and populace that is poorer and sicker. Since his first term in office in 2017 through 2020, President Trump’s MAGA agenda proposed cutting taxes for the wealthy. He also began focusing on eliminating federal government regulations of banks, corporations, workplaces, and civil rights laws.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has supercharged the MAGA agenda by targeting the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for reduction and abolishing programs aimed at investigating and prosecuting tax cheats.
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Project 2025’s policy recommendations also seek to punish working Americans, limit the financial opportunities for the middle class, and undermine the US economy in favor of private corporations and large religious organizations.
Elon Musk and his DOGE team have literally and figuratively taken a chainsaw to all of the major bureaucratic institutions of the federal government.
An unelected businessman, lacking congressional confirmation, with foreign loyalties and substantial financial conflicts of interests from his extensive government contracts – somehow enjoys unprecedented access to various departments – including Treasury, Transportation, the Social Security Administration, Veterans Affairs, and more.
The short time that RFK Jr. has been in control of the Department of Health has sent shivers down the spines of everyone in the public health community. Kennedy combines mainstream perspectives on policing food additives with “holistic” alternatives to vaccinations to treat infectious diseases, debunked conspiracy theories regarding fluoride in drinking water, and fevered dreams of corruption in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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The official portrait of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. Image credit: The US Department of Health and Human Services.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr spent a great deal of time during his career as a lawyer cosplaying as an environmental health activist.
Now, the new Health Secretary is silent as the Trump administration dismantles climate and environmental regulations – including reversals of EPA protections, oil drilling expansions, and reconsidering the Endangered Species Act.
These rollbacks will have public health consequences, as increased pollution can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in humans.
Then, we have RFK Jr.’s “pet projects:”
Repealing vaccine mandates
Weakening FDA drug regulations
Redefining public health emergencies to facilitate moving away from scientific research and the rigors of peer review to a system that allows subpar “wellness” corporations to operate with minimal federal oversight.
Additionally, members of Congress are currently on their April recess, while Republicans (GOP) are working on a very unpopular reconciliation bill that slashes Medicaid and SNAP to provide tax cuts for billionaires.
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Public education is supposed to be one of the main avenues to success in the United States and the key to achieving prosperity through the mythical “American Dream.”
However, President Trump is actively seeking to destroy the American public education system while condemning those who tried to improve their financial and social prospects via higher education to debt-induced servitude. According to recent public health studies, individuals with significant debt are more likely to experience higher levels of financial stress.
The public education policies of MAGA and Project 2025 will combine with congressional GOP efforts to eliminate Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, resulting in an epidemic of severe stress and anxiety across the US. Tackling the mental health effects of debt necessitates systemic public health reforms and policy initiatives.
Yet, increasing funding for mental health services and making them more accessible to people saddled with debt is not a priority for Secretary Kennedy. He will be too focused on spreading his MAHA conspiracy theories and promoting snake oil cures.