'Cruel' Donald Trump's decisions 'will cost lives' as he 'walks away from responsibility'

EXCLUSIVE: The first 100 days of Donald Trump's second presidency have seen his pal Elon Musk take to government spending with a chainsaw, a metaphor he felt the need to explain to everyone

Decisions made in Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office could ‘cost lives’ and open the door to deadly disease, an expert has warned.

Kavelle Christie, CEO of Orion 360 Health and former director of the Gender Equity and Health Justice Program at health-advocacy group Community Catalyst, said Trump’s “deliberately cruel choices,” were “a masterclass in public health demolition,” and created major concerns about issues from women' s rights to child mortality rates in the US.

"As someone who works at the intersection of sexual and reproductive health, maternal health, and global health systems, I can tell you plainly: the first 100 days of this administration have been a masterclass in public health demolition,” she told the Daily Star.

“We are watching it happen in real-time. We are watching trusted institutions be hollowed out, hospitals shut their doors, maternal deaths rise, and critical healthcare coverage be stripped away, and none of it is by accident.

“It sent a clear message when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was appointed to lead Health and Human Services, and Dr. Mehmet Oz was tapped to oversee Medicare and Medicaid. Public health is not the priority. Privatization, disinformation, and the dismantling of protections are.”

Her words come amid widespread cuts to government funding orchestrated by tech-billionaire Elon Musk, who has spent the first 100 days of the new administration heading up the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

These cuts, Kavalle said, will have far-reaching consequences across all manner of US public health areas. “Moves to slash Medicaid funding, shutter rural hospitals, restrict access to reproductive healthcare, and gut maternal health programs are not just technical shifts,” she said.

"They are decisions that will cost lives, especially in communities already fighting for a fair chance to survive.”

Chillingly, she then raised the alarm about the erosion of barriers to infectious diseases created by the cuts seen so far by Doge.

“Meanwhile, rural healthcare infrastructure is collapsing. Investments in infectious disease preparedness are being abandoned. And the United States, already home to the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy countries, is sliding even further backward, and Black and Indigenous women continue to pay the highest price. Every closure, every cut, every attack feeds a crisis we have the tools to fix but are choosing not to.

“This is not a government reorganizing for efficiency. It is a government walking away from its responsibility to safeguard the health and well-being of its people. President Trump's approval rating after his first 100 days is now the lowest of any modern president in the last 70 years. It is the inevitable result of deliberately cruel choices."

If you can't view the poll above, click here