Op-Ed: Health policy under Trump, one year in

Health policy in the United States in 2025 featured a series of executive and agency actions that were defined not just what was achieved, but how those changes occurred and who exercised authority. From January 2025 through January 2026, the Trump administration led the direction, Supreme Court decisions clarified the legal landscape, and Congress was largely absent from the playing field. The COVID-19 chapter closed early in the year. Public health leadership had overplayed its hand during the pandemic, and the first steps in moving health policy forward in 2025 involved dismantling the centralized authority that had characterized its response. Pandemic emergency authorizations were allowed to expire, COVID-19 era grants were clawed back, and federal funding of new mRNA vaccine research was ended, marking a move toward more precision technology. At the same time, federal health institutions were reorganized to cut waste and overhead. Leadership changes and subsequent workforce reduct