Trump ditches the victims of ‘American Carnage’ His cuts will kill

In his First Inaugural Address, President Trump used an evocative phrase — “American Carnage” — to describe the misery of the US heartland: communities racked by the China trade shock and afflicted by opioids and related social crises. Fast-forward a decade, and tucked into his “big beautiful” budget bill is a proposal to slash more than $1.2 billion from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and some $30 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s opioid-monitoring programs.

The move would eliminate more than 20,000 jobs: case workers, public-health researchers, Narcan distributors, Medicaid rehab staff — the very professionals and programs, in other words, that serve the victims of American Carnage. It is among the gravest betrayals of Trumpian America in a second Trump term that undeniably favours Reagan-style austerity over popular domestic policy.