It has now been over four months since President Trump returned to office in January 2025, this time with tech billionaire Elon Musk as a formal economic advisor through the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In this short time, the administration has issued an unprecedented wave of executive orders more than any president in the modern era within their first 100 days.
But for all the activity, the results have been devastating for working people in the United States and abroad. While billionaires are thriving under a new pro-corporate doctrine, millions of everyday Americans face rising prices, job losses, and the disappearance of essential social protections. At the same time, people in crisis around the world are suffering due to the abrupt dismantling of humanitarian aid and global health support. These actions are not accidental they reflect a deliberate policy agenda designed to increase inequality, weaken worker protections, and transfer wealth upward.
This is what the Trump-Musk administration is doing. And this is what we must challenge.
The Collapse of Humanitarian Aid
In February 2025, President Trump announced his plan to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), freezing nearly all foreign assistance and initiating the transfer of remaining operations to the State Department. Since then, the collapse of U.S. humanitarian aid has contributed to rising famine, disease outbreaks, and political instability in dozens of countries.
Millions of people who once depended on U.S. support for clean water, basic healthcare, and food assistance are now left behind. Ongoing conflicts in places like Yemen, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa have intensified without peacebuilding programs or economic recovery initiatives. Maternal health services, school feeding programs, and community development projects have all been slashed.
In March, the administration cut funding for global childhood vaccination programs, eliminating U.S. contributions to Gavi and other international partners. The impact is already visible. Measles outbreaks have surged in refugee camps. Children in the poorest regions are dying from preventable illnesses while wealthier nations turn away.
The administration has also recommitted to the Global Gag Rule, denying funding to any organization that so much as mentions abortion even if the services are legal in the country of operation. This has cut off sexual and reproductive health services to millions of women and girls in vulnerable communities.
The result is widespread suffering, preventable deaths, and a total reversal of decades of bipartisan investment in global health and development.
An Immigration System Built to Exclude
President Trump’s second-term immigration policies are some of the most extreme in U.S. history. Within his first month in office, he suspended the refugee admissions program, terminated temporary protected status (TPS) for migrants from multiple conflict-affected countries, and reinstated the Remain in Mexico policy, forcing asylum seekers to wait in dangerous conditions across the border.
The administration has also ended the use of the CBP One app, previously one of the only legal ways to request asylum at the border and begun mass family detentions once again. There are now credible reports of masked federal agents conducting unannounced raids in urban centers, removing migrants without due process and deporting them to prisons abroad with no ability to appeal.
New laws like the Laken Riley Act allow the deportation of immigrants based solely on criminal accusations not convictions placing thousands of people at risk of unjust removal and separating countless families.
These efforts come with immense human cost. Parents are torn from their children. Survivors of domestic violence and war are returned to countries they fled. Legal asylum pathways have been gutted. The administration’s approach criminalizes migration and ignores both international law and basic human dignity.
A Deepening Climate Crisis, Driven by Policy
On his first day back in office, President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement for the second time. He declared a national “energy emergency,” revoked clean energy subsidies, and signed executive orders dismantling major climate initiatives funded under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Offshore wind projects were halted. Regulations requiring automakers to transition to electric vehicles were canceled. States like New York and Vermont, which have set up climate superfunds to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for environmental damage, are now being targeted by the Department of Justice under a new executive order from April 8.
Polluters are no longer being held accountable. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created a direct contact system for corporations to request exemptions from Clean Air Act requirements. This opens the door to a wave of unregulated emissions and environmental damage especially in low-income communities and communities of color already facing disproportionate exposure to toxic air and water.
This administration is making a choice to put profit ahead of planet. And those who will suffer most are the people least responsible for the climate crisis.
An Economy that Works for the Richest Few
President Trump has promised to “make America affordable again,” but his policies so far have focused almost entirely on enriching the wealthiest Americans. In April, he endorsed a budget resolution proposing more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, and housing programs, while championing the renewal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act a $5.5 trillion giveaway to corporations and the ultra-rich.
He has imposed sweeping tariffs that have disrupted global trade, raised consumer prices on food, energy, and household goods, and risked sparking a new global recession. Far from protecting American families, these tariffs increase everyday costs while destabilizing the global economy punishing workers around the world to advance a narrow political agenda.
The administration is also slashing federal workforces at agencies tasked with enforcing labor rights, environmental protections, and tax compliance. Thousands of staff at the Internal Revenue Service have been laid off, weakening efforts to hold wealthy tax dodgers accountable.
This is a vision of the economy where billionaires prosper and everyone else is expected to make do with less.
What We Are Doing and How You Can Help
Despite these attacks on human rights, democracy, and equality, resistance is growing. In recent months:
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Oxfam and a coalition of over 130 organizations submitted a joint letter to Congress demanding the protection of foreign aid and USAID.
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Legal teams are actively fighting back against executive orders targeting aid, asylum, and climate protections. Several injunctions have been granted, including a temporary freeze on the ending of birthright citizenship.
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Our Sisters on the Planet ambassadors and grassroots volunteers have held more than 130 meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, demanding a fair tax system and stronger protections for workers and families.
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Major demonstrations have taken place across the country, including protests on International Women’s Day, President’s Day, and Earth Week, opposing the administration’s rollback of rights and protections.
Change is not coming from Washington alone it is rising up from communities across the country.
The Time to Act Is Now
We are facing a pivotal moment in history. The policies being enacted today will shape our lives for decades to come. Whether it is protecting access to food, fighting climate destruction, defending immigrant rights, or ensuring working families have what they need to survive the stakes are too high for silence.
Support this work. Call your representatives. Join a protest. Donate to organizations fighting on the front lines. Stand up for the people and communities this administration has tried to leave behind.
A more just, more equal future is still possible. But only if we fight for it together.