Money for child care – Not for War!

Entrenched in a war of his own making, President Donald Trump announced his spending priorities for 2027 during a White House luncheon on April 1: “The United States can’t take care of day care. It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all those individual things. … We have to take care of one thing: military protection.”

While the U.S. is already spending over $1 billion a day on the war against Iran, Trump says the Pentagon needs an annual budget of $1.5 trillion — and that states will have to pick up the tab for child care, health care and other social programs.

Throughout his two presidential campaigns, Trump promised supporters that he would prioritize funding for workers’ needs, while moving away from support for imperialist wars. But the capitalists are increasingly looking to recolonization as the way to revive their dying system.

Consistent with the capitalist outlook that the federal government is a servant to the wealthiest people in the U.S. (Trump’s family included), rather than tax billionaires to pay for social programs, he attacks the most vulnerable within the population. 

In the first year of his second term, Trump used a government shutdown to gut funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for millions of families. In his second year, child care appears to be his preferred target. As part of the war on immigrant communities, Trump was already attacking child care centers run by Somali communities in Minnesota, using fake fraud claims made by right-wing “investigators.” Since January, the administration has frozen federal assets of over $10 billion designated for child care centers in five states.

Parents who rely on child care in order to be able to work pay on average 8.9% to 16.0% of their income for full day care for one child. Varying by location, annual costs run from over $6,500 to $15,600 or higher, depending on the child’s age. Sometimes day care costs are higher than housing costs.

Currently, federal funding for child care is around $30 billion, split between the Child Care and Development Fund and Head Start. Overall, the share of federal spending on children has fallen from 11.98% in 2021 to 8.57% in 2025. While Trump’s “Big Bad Tax Bill” included tax credits for child care, these mainly benefited higher income recipients.

But why does the Pentagon need $1.5 trillion annually? In the first four weeks of war against Iran, the U.S. used over 850 “Tomahawk” missiles, costing close to $4 million each. And then there are the planes shot down by Iran’s “devastated” air defense system. As of April 5, these include four F-15Es, four KC-135s (refueling planes), plus one AWACS and one A-10 destroyed during Iran’s attacks on military bases. Replacement of these multimillion-dollar war planes could run into the billions.

Since the start of the war, Iran has targeted the 17 U.S. military bases around West Asia, leaving 13 largely uninhabitable. According to warcosts.org: “The United States maintains the largest network of foreign military bases in world history — over 694 overseas installations across 112 countries and territories, plus 824 domestic bases across all 50 states. No other country comes close.” (March 3)

The top 100 global firms involved in weapons production made record profits from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza — $679 billion in 2024, a 5.9% increase over prior years. (The Economic Times, Dec. 1 2025) In contrast, most child care workers earn just over minimum wage, even when highly educated and skilled. 

We must demand: Money for the workers and poor — not for the Pentagon’s war!