As Americans across the country celebrate the 71st annual Veterans Day, Trump and Republicans in Congress are making everything worse for our nation’s heroes. They’re firing thousands of veterans working for the federal government and ripping away tax credits that will leave hundreds of thousands of veterans without health insurance and millions more with higher costs and worse care.
“Veterans sacrifice for our nation and in return the federal government promises to care for us and our families. But the benefits veterans earned are worth less and less every day in the face of rising costs from Trump’s tariffs, worsening health care and food access from Trump’s tax law and unprecedented firings of veterans who worked for the federal government. President Trump and congressional Republicans can’t pretend to care about veterans when their agenda has been to undermine us at every opportunity,” said Ricardo Reyes, Arizonan and United States Marine Corps veteran.
Read more about how Trump is making everyday life worse for veterans:
- The Trump administration has fired roughly 6,000 veterans working for the federal government.
- The Trump administration is slashing the workforce of the Department of Veterans Affairs, planning to cut 30,000 VA employees by the end of the year. These cuts don’t even reflect the full scale of Trump’s plans to decimate resources used by millions of American veterans; his 2026 proposed budget cut 80,000 VA employees and even slashed funds for veteran homelessness.
- Trump and Republicans in Congress slashed over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act as part of their Big, Ugly Bill. 1.6 million veterans depend on Medicaid for health care and nearly 300,000 veterans buy coverage on their own through the ACA.
- Trump and Republicans cut $186 billion in food assistance as part of the Big Ugly Bill, even as 1.2 million veterans live in households that receive food assistance through SNAP. During the government shutdown, the Trump administration even fought in court to avoid paying out food assistance benefits to these veterans. Trump is working to privatize the military’s PX grocery stores, which could raise costs for active duty military and veterans.
- Trump and Republicans imposed the longest government shutdown in U.S. history so they could rip away health care tax credits that over 600,000 veterans would have relied on in 2026. 267,000 veterans nationwide are expected to lose health care thanks to Republicans ripping away tax credits.
- Under Trump, veterans are facing rising housing costs as homebuilding declines due to Trump’s tariffs. VA loan delinquencies rose in both Q2 and Q3 this year.