Here’s another SMDH moment. While punishing blue states seems to be very high on Trump’s list of things to do - his policies, once again, usually end up actually fucking over his MAGA base. In another self-own, he managed to gut healthcare in the same red states that carried him back into office, while blue states lawyered up and kept every dime.
Back in March, HHS announced it was yanking nearly 700 CDC grants worth $11 billion. At first, cuts hit both red and blue states. Then the lawsuits started. Democratic-led states fought back in court and won. Republican-led states folded without a fight.
California walked away with all its grants intact. Texas now leads the nation in terminated grants, losing at least 30. Colorado had 11 cut at first, then got 10 restored by joining the lawsuit. But Wyoming, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma didn’t bother to sue. Together they lost 55 grants and got nothing back. Womp, Womp.
Of course, in another example of “If you saw this in a movie, you might groan at how perfect the timing was,” while Texas saw its CDC funding vanish, a measles outbreak spread across the U.S. and Mexico, infecting at least 4,500 and killing 16. Texas alone has logged more than 700 cases and at least two deaths in otherwise healthy kids. And yes, the outbreak response is being crippled by the exact funding cuts that blue states successfully fought off.
In Dallas County, the fallout looks like this: 11 full-time and 10 part-time health workers laid off. Fifty vaccination clinics canceled. Meanwhile, in Jackson, Ohio, community health workers showed up in March to find their CDC grant canceled five months early. Half a million dollars gone. Jobs gone.
But wait - it gets better! Trump states actually got most of the CDC’s funding for states in 2023-56% of it. Red states were getting the bigger piece of the pie. Now they’re the ones bleeding it away because their leaders refused to stand up for their own citizens.
Studies of past outbreaks put the public health cost of each measles case at roughly $30,000 to $50,000. Multiply that by hundreds of cases and you see how fast red states are burning money they no longer have. Blue states, meanwhile, still have their infrastructure intact because they were willing to fight in court.
Federal money - much of it from the CDC - makes up more than half of state and local health budgets. These aren’t budget trims. They’re existential cuts. And while kids die from preventable diseases, RFK Jr. is out here peddling vitamin A as a measles treatment. What a moron.
None of this was unforeseeable. From 1989 to 1991, with too many little kids not getting their shots on time, a national measles epidemic killed 123 people. Health officials warned this would happen again. Red state leaders shrugged and chose loyalty to Trump over protecting their residents.
So now we’re watching two Americas. Blue states defended their health infrastructure. Red states bent the knee and are paying for it with human lives. Turns out, competent governance isn’t just a nice slogan. It actually matters.
I haven’t hammered this point before, but it’s getting harder to ignore - if you live in a red state and you have the ability to get out, it’s time to start packing.
Correction, September 28th, 2026: This essay first said Trump states got more CDC funding per person in 2023 than Harris states - Trump states got most of the money, 56% of it, but Harris states got slightly more per person. It also said cuts like these in the 1980s led to a national measles outbreak that killed 123 people - that epidemic ran from 1989 to 1991, and a federal vaccine advisory committee blamed kids not getting vaccinated on schedule.
Update, September 28th, 2026: A few lines now say the per-case measles cost comes from studies of past outbreaks, that it’s federal money overall - much of it from the CDC - that makes up more than half of health department budgets, and that RFK Jr. pushed vitamin A as a treatment, not a cure. Much of the reporting here comes from KFF Health News - read their August 26th, 2025 analysis here.