Politics and health are a messy mix. When you start digging into whether or not Donald Trump cut funding for cancer research, you quickly realize it's not a "yes" or "no" answer. It’s actually a story about a tug-of-war between the White House and Congress that has played out across two different terms.
If you just look at the budget proposals sent from the Oval Office, the answer seems obvious. Every single year of his first term, the Trump administration asked for massive cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In 2017, for example, the White House proposed a nearly 20% slash to the NIH—about $6 billion—with $1 billion of that specifically aimed at the NCI.
But here’s where it gets kinda complicated.
In the U.S. government, the President proposes a budget, but Congress holds the purse strings. What actually happened was that Republicans and Democrats in Congress looked at those proposed cuts and basically threw them in the trash. Instead of cutting, they actually increased funding for cancer research every year from 2017 to 2021.
The Budget Battle: Proposals vs. Reality
Honestly, the gap between what was requested and what was spent is wild. In early 2020, the administration’s FY2021 budget proposal called for a 9% cut to the NCI. Advocacy groups like the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) went into full-blown panic mode. They warned that turning back the clock on funding would stall breakthroughs that add millions of "life-years" to patients.
👉 See also: My eye keeps twitching for days: When to ignore it and when to actually worry
Despite those warnings from the White House budget office that these programs were "inefficient," Congress did the opposite. By the time the FY2020 appropriation hit the president's desk, the NCI actually received $6.3 billion—which was over $200 million above the previous year.
The Childhood Cancer Exception
There was one area where the Trump administration didn't just follow the status quo but actively pushed for more money: kids.
During the 2019 State of the Union, Trump announced the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI). He pledged $500 million over ten years. It was a rare moment of alignment. Even while proposing broad cuts to the NIH, the administration carved out this specific $50 million annual investment. Fast forward to 2025 and 2026, and this has expanded even further. Under the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) framework, the administration recently moved to double that funding to $100 million, specifically focusing on using AI to parse through pediatric cancer data.
What's Happening Right Now?
If you’re looking at the current landscape in 2026, the situation has shifted from "proposals" to "direct action." This is where the debate has become much more heated.
✨ Don't miss: Ingestion of hydrogen peroxide: Why a common household hack is actually dangerous
Unlike the first term where Congress blocked the cuts, the current administration has utilized different levers. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been a massive factor here. Earlier in 2025, the NIH reportedly canceled over $2 billion in research grants. This wasn't just a future plan; it was money that stopped flowing to active projects.
A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that nearly 400 clinical trials were interrupted by these recent funding shifts. That’s a lot of patients left in limbo.
- Clinical Trial Delays: Some researchers, like Steven A. Rosenberg at the NCI, have noted that patient enrollments are being pushed back or turned away entirely.
- The "Lump Sum" Rule: A new policy requiring the NIH to fund multi-year grants with a single upfront payment—rather than year-by-year—has effectively created a massive bottleneck, reducing the number of new grants the NCI can award from 9% down to about 4%.
- Brain Drain: A survey by Nature suggested that a staggering 75% of researchers are considering leaving the U.S. because the funding environment has become so unpredictable.
The Bipartisan Pushback
It’s worth noting that cancer research is one of the few things that usually unites Washington. Even in 2026, we’re seeing a Republican-led Senate Appropriations Committee rejecting the latest requests for a 40% cut to the NIH. Senator Susan Collins and others recently approved a bill that would actually increase NCI funding to $7.4 billion.
They realize that cancer doesn't care about your political party.
🔗 Read more: Why the EMS 20/20 Podcast is the Best Training You’re Not Getting in School
Actionable Steps for Patients and Advocates
If you're worried about how these funding shifts affect your care or the future of medicine, you aren't powerless. The system is still designed to respond to public pressure.
1. Track the "Success Rate"
If you are a researcher or work with a non-profit, keep a close eye on the NCI's "paylines." This is the percentile score a grant needs to actually get funded. When funding is cut, the payline drops, meaning only the "perfect" scores get money.
2. Leverage the Childhood Cancer STAR Act
If your interest is in pediatric care, use the resources provided by the STAR Act. It’s one of the few pieces of legislation that has remained robustly funded and provides specific avenues for survivors to get support and for researchers to access surveillance data.
3. Engage with the Appropriations Process
Most people wait for the President to speak, but the real power is in the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Writing to these specific committee members is far more effective than a general letter to the White House.
4. Diversify Funding Sources
For those in the lab, the current volatility means looking toward private-public partnerships. Organizations like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) often step in when federal grants dry up, though they’ll tell you themselves they can’t replace the billions provided by the NIH.
The "funding cut" conversation is usually a mix of political posturing and behind-the-scenes accounting. While the intent to cut has been a consistent theme in Trump's budget requests, the actual amount of money spent on cancer research increased during his first term due to Congressional intervention. However, the administrative changes and grant cancellations seen in 2025 and 2026 represent a much more direct impact on the scientific community than anything we saw in the previous decade.