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Medicaid Cuts Put All Children's Health at Risk—I Would Know
Cuts to Medicaid don’t only hurt the poor, disabled, or seniors—as my family and I learned, they hurt all of us.
Jul 12, 2026
I was 13 years old. We’d just returned from Christmas vacation, and I was asleep in my room.
My mother tells me she heard a noise and found me in my bed, twisted up like a clam, frothing at the mouth. She was in shock. The paramedics came and took me to the ER. I don’t remember anything about it.
That night, I had a CT scan and an MRI. They found an abnormality in my brain called a cavernoma, and I needed surgery right away to correct it. Because it was a delicate operation, I needed not only a pediatric surgeon but a sub-specialist—a pediatric neurologist.
Little did my family know, there is a nationwide shortage of pediatric sub-specialists.
Medicaid and CHIP must be protected. Congress must invest in pediatric care so that no other children are told to wait months for necessary care.
The surgeon on-call that night assured us that I could be cured with surgery, but we needed to get it done as soon as possible to avoid another seizure and more damage. But when my mom called the hospital, they said the next available appointment was more than three months away due to a lack of pediatric neurosurgeons.
I was already isolating myself. Scared, missing school, I withdrew from sports and hid from my friends. At 13, you don’t want to be different, and you definitely don’t want anyone to know there’s something wrong with your brain. The depression and anxiety deepened. And I would have to go on like this for months?
My family was financially comfortable, we had private insurance, and we lived in Manhattan. Yet even someone as fortunate as I was had to wait because there’s a severe shortage of pediatric specialists.
What if it happens to a girl from a poor or middle class family without good insurance, or who lives farther away from good care? How long would her wait be? Would her family be able to afford it all?
Thankfully, I was lucky. I was able to get the surgery sooner before three months passed, and I’m cured now. But having gone through this experience, my mom and I wanted to find out the cause of the deficit in pediatric care—and how it can be fixed.
With the help of a bipartisan advocacy organization that works on these issues, First Focus On Children, we found out that most pediatric specialties are reimbursed largely through Medicaid and its state-tailored companion program, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Half of the nation’s children receive health coverage through Medicaid or CHIP, and even children with private insurance rely on Medicaid when they need specialized care. So most pediatric specialists and sub-specialists have to rely on these government programs for reimbursement.
But unlike Medicare and private insurance, which reimburse adult and senior care specialists at much higher levels, Medicaid reimbursements are significantly smaller for pediatric care—though the doctors go through the same expensive training and have the same qualifications. Because of this, far fewer medical specialists go into pediatric care because it’s financially untenable.
As a result, there is a crisis in pediatric care. To make it worse, Congress’s partisan “Big Beautiful Bill” slashes almost $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years. At a time when we desperately need more investment in Medicaid, we are going in the opposite direction.
Cuts to Medicaid don’t only hurt the poor, disabled, or seniors—as my family and I learned, they hurt all of us. Healthcare in this country isn’t sufficiently serving those in need. If things continue this way, what will pediatric care look like for my own children one day?
We must do better. Medicaid and CHIP must be protected. Congress must invest in pediatric care so that no other children are told to wait months for necessary care. It’s not only about the “haves” and the “have-nots.” It’s about all of us.
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More Than 5 Million People Have Lost Health Coverage Under Trump-GOP Law
According to a new report, the crisis is "only going to get worse."
Jun 23, 2026
Not even a year after President Donald Trump signed the largest healthcare cuts in US history into law, around five million Americans have lost insurance coverage, according to a report out Monday from Protect Our Care, which predicted that the crisis was "only going to get worse."
The massive budget and tax legislation passed by Republicans last July, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, slashed nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) over the next decade while introducing tax breaks that are expected to hand an additional $1 trillion to the richest 1% of Americans.
“Five million and counting. That’s the human toll of the spiraling Republican healthcare affordability crisis,” said Protect Our Care president Brad Woodhouse. “Just one year after Trump and congressional Republicans made the largest cuts to healthcare in history to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations on Wall Street, millions have lost the care they depended on to stay alive and healthy."
Citing the most recent data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and state agencies, the report found that the number of Americans enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP had fallen to just 76.9 million, down from 80.8 million a year before—a decline of more than 3.8 million people.
Another 1.2 million are also estimated to have lost coverage due to the massive spike in premiums after Republicans voted not to renew tax credits for consumers under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that lowered costs for Americans who purchased coverage through ACA marketplaces.
During open enrollment in 2025, 24.3 million Americans selected insurance plans through the ACA. This year, as the average premium was projected to more than double on average, the number of Americans enrolled through the ACA fell to just 23.1 million—a drop of nearly 1.2 million.
The millions of other families still enrolled in insurance through the ACA exchanges saw an average increase of $780, and according to KFF, it's only been that low because many families have opted to switch to cheaper, less comprehensive plans.
The loss of insurance coverage "is only a small piece of the puzzle," Woodhouse said.
"Millions more are making impossible choices every day to keep their coverage, including skipping rent or cutting back on groceries so they can see a doctor," he said. "Their pain and suffering are incalculable."
The report said the coverage losses over the first year are "just the beginning" and that "millions more will lose coverage once deeper cuts go into effect."
The full slate of changes to Medicaid from the GOP bill has not yet been enacted. Next year, many adult recipients will be required to submit proof that they are doing at least 80 hours of work or other qualifying activity each month in order to maintain benefits, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated could increase the uninsured population by 5.3 million by 2034.
Another paperwork hurdle, the requirement that certain Medicaid expansion enrollees prove their eligibility every six months, is expected to result in another 700,000 people becoming uninsured by 2034.
In total, CBO analyses estimate that over the next decade, roughly 15 million Americans would lose their insurance coverage as a result of the legislation.
"These are our neighbors, our friends, our loved ones. These are small business owners and farmers. These are seniors. Veterans. Moms," Woodhouse said. "These are millions of working people now scrambling to find insulin pumps, taking thousands out of retirement just to see a doctor for that cough that’s not getting better, or, worse, not getting care at all."
With healthcare costs now a top concern among voters—66% of whom said they were worried about affording it, according to a KFF poll in January—cuts to healthcare spending appear to be a glaring liability for Republicans entering the midterm elections.
Another KFF poll from April found that 37% of voters said they trusted Democrats to address healthcare costs, while just 26% said they trusted Republicans. Meanwhile, 67% of voters said they disapproved of the Trump administration's handling of healthcare costs.
"Every single day, the affordability crisis mounts, and more Americans will find themselves joining the five million struggling to keep up with skyrocketing healthcare costs," Woodhouse said. "The American people won’t forget this betrayal in November.”
Democrats have seized on Monday's report as part of their election pitch, including Rep. Greg Landsman, who faces a competitive reelection fight in Ohio's 1st Congressional District.
He wrote on social media Tuesday that Republicans "cut healthcare by nearly a trillion to pay for tax cuts for the super wealthy... five million people no longer have healthcare."
"The healthcare crisis in America is dominating the lives of millions, and will soon dominate all of our lives," he said. "We need a new Congress to restore people’s healthcare and to end this crisis. There is no other way."
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CBO Report Confirms 'Republicans Are Lying' About Medicaid Cuts
"Their plan would force the largest Medicaid cuts in American history—all to pay for more tax giveaways to billionaires," said Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle.
Mar 06, 2025
At a press conference last week, U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise claimed Democrats are lying when they warn that Medicaid is in the Republican Party's crosshairs.
"The word Medicaid is not even in this bill," Scalise (R-La.) declared, waving the text of a budget resolution that House Republicans went on to pass over unified Democratic opposition.
But an analysis released late Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) makes clear that deep cuts to Medicaid would be required under the House GOP resolution, which President Donald Trump has endorsed.
The analysis, produced at the request of leading House Democrats, shows that Medicaid accounts for 93% of projected mandatory spending under the jurisdiction of the House Energy and Commerce Committee over the next decade, not including Medicare.
That means Republicans would have to cut Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or Medicare to achieve the $880 billion in spending reductions that the House budget resolution instructs the energy and commerce panel to impose between fiscal years 2025 and 2034.
"This analysis from the nonpartisan CBO confirms what we've been saying all along: Republicans are lying about their budget," said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. "Their plan would force the largest Medicaid cuts in American history—all to pay for more tax giveaways to billionaires."
I keep hearing Republicans claim their budget doesn't cut Medicaid. We all know that's a lie — so I asked the nonpartisan CBO to look into it. Their analysis confirms it: the Republican budget delivers the largest Medicaid cuts in history to pay for giveaways to billionaires.
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— Rep. Brendan Boyle (@congressmanboyle.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
According to the CBO, just $135 billion in spending under the House Energy and Commerce Committee's jurisdiction over the next decade would be available for cuts when excluding Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, and programs that are "budget-neutral with revenues offsetting spending."
That would leave the GOP far short of the $880 billion in energy and commerce spending reductions proposed in the House budget resolution, which still must make its way through the Republican-controlled Senate before the GOP can move ahead with Trump's legislative agenda.
The CBO's analysis comes a day after Trump neglected to mention Medicaid during his first address to Congress of his second term, a decision that one advocate said confirms the president "knows his plan to cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid is so deeply unpopular that he would rather sweep it under the rug."
Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Wednesday that the CBO analysis "confirms what we've been saying all along: The math doesn't work without devastating Medicaid cuts."
"The reality is the only way Republicans can cut at least $880 billion within the Energy and Commerce Committee's jurisdiction is by making deep, harmful cuts to Americans' healthcare," said Pallone. "Republicans know their spin is a lie, and the truth is they have no problem taking healthcare away from millions of Americans so that the rich can get richer and pay less in taxes than they already do."
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President Trump's War on the Poor
The economy continues to generate jobs that won’t support a family. That’s why so-called poverty programs—from CHIP to food stamps to public housing to low income heating assistance to Medicaid—are so necessary.
Dec 10, 2019
Donald Trump is famed for his head-snapping reversals. One day he's taking troops out of the Middle East; the next he's sending more in. One day he's on the verge of an agreement with China on trade; the next he's tweeting about holding off until after the election.
On one thing, however, Trump and his administration have been clear, consistent, coordinated and relentless: waging a war on the poor. Not a war on poverty but a war on the most vulnerable themselves.
Despite low unemployment, millions of Americans--the Brookings Institution estimates an astounding 44% of all workers in the prime working ages of 18-64--struggle to get by on median wages of little over $10 an hour or $18,000 a year. The working poor face soaring costs of housing, health care, transportation, utilities and, of course, debt--all rising faster than their wages.
The official "poverty rate" is far lower than any accounting of the true needs of a family. The National Center for Children in Poverty estimates that the average family needs about twice as much income as the poverty level to meet basic needs.
Cruelly, the Trump response to this is to make it worse. The administration and Republicans in Congress oppose raising the minimum wage and won't even allow a vote on it in the Senate. Now the administration proposes lowering the poverty line over time by pegging the inflation adjustments lower than the actual increase in costs. All programs that help low-wage workers would be affected. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projects that 250,000 seniors would get less help in purchasing prescription drugs, 300,000 children would lose health care under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This rule combined with others that the administration has imposed will cost literally millions of low-wage workers to face cutbacks in food assistance.
Student loan debt is now $1.5 trillion, primarily loans taken out by the children of middle- or low-income families trying to better themselves through education. Bernie Sanders, running for president, has pledged to eliminate all student debt, paying for it with taxes on the wealthy, and to make all public colleges tuition free. Elizabeth Warren has joined in a plan to eliminate the debt for most students and make colleges tuition free.
Trump is reportedly worried that these plans are very popular. His administration is scrambling to respond. One proposal, as the Washington Post reported, is to cap the loans a student could get in relation to their projected income. That's right, the Trump plan may call for reducing student debt by cutting the availability of loans to students--effectively closing the doors to college to the children of middle- and low-income families.
Add to this Trump's most recent plan to take $2 billion out of the Pell Grant program--which supports college grants to children from families with less than $50,000 in income--to pay for sending NASA back to the moon. The maximum Pell Grant once covered nearly 80% of the cost of tuition, fees, room and board at public four-year college; now it covers less than 30%.
This is a program that needs more funding, not less.
Trump, of course, brags on his economy and the low unemployment. He argues--without evidence--that his tax cut is trickling down to workers. What he doesn't realize is that this economy continues to generate jobs that won't support a family. That's why so-called poverty programs--from CHIP to food stamps to public housing to low income heating assistance to Medicaid--are so necessary. They give vital support to low-wage workers who do some of the hardest, most taxing jobs in our country.
Cuts in student aid, cuts in Pell grants, cuts in food stamps, cuts in the poverty level--Trump is putting low wage workers and their families in a box with no way out except down. Our country is paying a very high price for this meanness.
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Thanks to Trump, 4 Million US Children Are Uninsured as Coverage Declines for Second Year in a Row
Children lost healthcare coverage as Trump delayed CHIP funding, slashed ACA outreach resources, and attacked immigrant families' access to government programs.
Oct 30, 2019
President Donald Trump's administration has succeeded in gutting the the Affordable Care Act and attacking access to healthcare coverage for low-income families--causing the number of uninsured children in the U.S. to climb to more than four million, a study released Tuesday finds.
The Georgetown University Center study found 400,000 children lost their health coverage between 2016 and 2018, making this year the second in a row to see the number of uninsured children rise.
There are now more uninsured children in the U.S. since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2014. The Georgetown researchers described the increase as part of "a very troubling trend."
"This is another reason we need Medicare for All--the wealthiest country in the history of the world and our healthcare system can't cover children."
--Ted Terry, mayor of Clarkston, Ga.
"The decline in health coverage occurred at a time when children should have been gaining coverage in the private market and is a red flag for policymakers as even more children would likely lose coverage in an economic downturn," said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center.
Alker blamed the decline on "the Trump administration's actions or inactions that have made health coverage harder to access," including the shortening of the ACA enrollment period; fewer resources given to ACA outreach efforts; a delay in implementing CHIP, which covers families that don't have employer-based insurance and don't qualify for Medicaid; and Trump's "public charge" rule, which experts say has deterred immigrant families for applying for government programs.
The uninsured rate among children dropped sharply after the ACA, also known as Obamacare, went into effect. In 2015, four million children had no health coverage, compared with nearly five million in 2014. Georgetown's study reveals that many of the gains made under the Obama administration have been erased by Trump.
Low- to middle-income families have been hit hardest by the decline in health coverage, and the majority of uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but are not enrolled.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alexander Azar on Tuesday, demanding records regarding the health coverage decline and slamming the Trump administration for claiming, as Medicaid administrator Seema Verma has, that the trend is due to low unemployment rates and reduced reliance on government-funded programs.
"This is a disturbing trend that the administration should be looking to correct, but instead, your administration has applauded the enrollment declines among children," wrote Wyden and Pallone. "And while you assert that they are the result of an improving economy, that is simply not borne out by the evidence."
"If children were leaving Medicaid and CHIP and finding coverage elsewhere, then the number and percent of uninsured children would go down," they added.
Ted Terry, the progressive mayor of Clarkston, Georgia, who is running for a Senate seat in 2020, tweeted that Georgetown's study offers "another reason we need Medicare for All."
"The wealthiest country in the history of the world and our healthcare system can't cover children," Terry wrote. "This election is about the moral character of our nation."
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'Once Again, Hurting Children': GAO Approves Trump's Plan to Take $7 Billion Back From Kids' Health Program
"The GOP tax cuts for the rich aren't going to pay themselves. That cash has to come from somewhere," tweeted one critic
May 22, 2018
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Tuesday approved President Donald Trump's "despicable" proposal to slash more than $7 billion from the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which helps impoverished families provide healthcare to their kids.
The approval came by way of a GAO report delivered to Congress early Tuesday. The cuts to CHIP are part of a broader plan by the Trump administration to cancel $15.3 billion in previously approved funding. House Republicans reportedly have already drafted a bill that aligns with the president's proposal and plan to put the measure to a vote next month.
Republican Senate leaders haven't publicly revealed plans for passing a related bill. However, with the GAO's greenlight, as Politico explained, "the White House's plan for so-called rescissions will likely retain its filibuster-proof powers in the GOP-controlled Senate, easing the way for potential passage with a simple majority vote."
When Trump's plan was revealed earlier this month, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) had called it "despicable on every level," particularly considering that last year's #GOPTaxScam "gave a trillion dollars to billionaires & massive corporations."
Critics on Tuesday, responding to the GAO report, also referenced the tax overhaul forced through by Republican lawmakers and signed by Trump in December.
"Well, to be honest, this only makes sense," said one Twitter user caustically. "The GOP tax cuts for the rich aren't going to pay themselves. That cash has to come from somewhere."
Others weighed in on the basic cruelty of targeting a program that helps children.
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GOP Exhibits 'Bottomless Bad Faith' With New Shutdown Hostage: Community Health Centers
Republicans are now pretending to care about funding for health centers that they allowed to lapse four months ago
Feb 06, 2018
Just weeks after Republicans cynically used children's health insurance funding to lure Democrats into voting for a short-term spending bill, the GOP confirmed on Monday that their hostage this time around--with a possible government shutdown looming on Thursday--will be the community health centers that provide "a lifeline" for 27 million Americans.
"Community health centers have replaced children's insurance as the hostage that the GOP does not own up to opposing and yet wants counted as their concession."
--Daniel Nichanian
The House GOP announced late Monday that two years of funding for the Community Health Center program will be included in a spending measure that also proposes a full year of funding for the Pentagon.
The bill, which does not include a DACA fix, could reach the House floor for a vote as early as Tuesday evening.
Given that Republicans have not previously shown any urgency to provide money for the health centers--allowing funding to lapse over four months ago, creating a what Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called a "healthcare crisis no one is talking about"--critics were quick to denounce the GOP's newfound concern for the centers as a "bad faith" attempt to coerce Democrats into choosing between fighting for Dreamers and funding a crucial healthcare program.
"This only makes sense as a way of running the government if you want to continually reserve the right to create a crisis or bankrupt a program," wrote MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Twitter Monday, highlighting the fact that the GOP's proposed stopgap measure would only fund the government through March 23. "If they thought Community Health Centers should be funded for two years, they, obviously, could have done that in the last [continuing resolution], but it was taken as a hostage."
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'Crisis No One Is Talking About': GOP Threatens Healthcare of 26 Million People
Sens. Sanders and Baldwin demand urgent action as thousands of community health centers face uncertain future without federal funds
Feb 02, 2018
While the Republican-controlled Congress finally approved funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program in late January after it lapsed in September, lawmakers have failed to renew funding for thousands of community health centers, which also expired in the fall--a move that "has quietly created a new healthcare crisis for 26 million Americans."
"If Congress doesn't fund community health centers," Vox's Sarah Kliff details in a report published Friday, "thousands are expected to close."
In response to Kliff's report, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)--who has introduced legislation to create a "Medicare for All" system that would guarantee healthcare for all Americans--and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), a co-sponsor on Sanders' bill, called for immediate action by lawmakers.
Although community health centers began as an experiment in a handful of states in the 1960s, they have vastly expanded in recent years with support from the previous two administrations. The Obama administration increased funding as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into effect, and when ACA funding lapsed in 2015, Congress opted to fund not only the children's healthcare program, or CHIP, but also the community health centers.
With this continuous support from the federal government, several centers have popped up all across the country, often serving low-income patients in rural areas. "The number of patient visits grew from 19.5 million in 2010 to 26.5 million in 2016," Kliff writes. "An additional 200 community health centers opened and increasingly expanded their work into dental and mental health services."
Now, however, many of the centers face an uncertain future. Although they "still have other income streams, including other grants, as well as reimbursements from the insurance plans (often Medicaid) that cover 77 percent of their patients," Kliff notes that "the loss of the federal dollars currently at stake--$3.6 billion in annual funding--would be a significant hit."
While "congressional aides on both sides of the aisle say they expect community health center funding to be attached to the next must-pass piece of legislation" that lawmakers need to approve before Feb. 8 to avoid another government shutdown, there have been no guarantees from leaders in Congress that the next spending bill will include money for the centers.
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Despite GOP Efforts to Blast Dems, Americans Blame Republicans for #TrumpShutdown
Critics urge Democrats to "stand strong" while calling on Republicans to end the shutdown "with a bipartisan solution for Dreamers, CHIP, the military, and disaster relief."
Jan 22, 2018
Despite efforts by President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers to blame Democrats for the government shutdown--deemed the #TrumpShutdown by critics--polling shows American voters hold Republicans and the president responsible for failing to reach an agreement on Friday to keep the federal government funded.
The Politico/Morning Consult poll (pdf) released Sunday, which showed that more American voters blame Republicans than Democrats, echoed results from a Washington Post/ABC poll published Friday. The Politico poll found that nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters support shutting down the government over disagreements about long-term funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which expired at the end of September.
Meanwhile, although 84 percent (pdf) of voters support Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)--which the Trump administration terminated last year but a federal judge recently reinstated--voters are split over whether the DACA debate warrants a shutdown. Republicans have been criticized for their numerous attempts to use DACA recipients, or Dreamers, as "bargaining chips" to implement tougher immigration enforcement measures.
Ahead of a Senate vote scheduled for around noon on Monday, advocates for Dreamers and CHIP urged lawmakers to pass a "bipartisan solution," and pushed Democrats to resist a deal that doesn't address DACA with the hashtag #NoDACANoDeal.
The polling results come as critics of the shutdown held protests throughout the weekend, and amid efforts by GOP lawmakers and the president to point fingers at Democrats in Congress. On Monday, the White House unveiled a new automated message on its telephone comment line, accusing congressional Democrats of "holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate."
The inflammatory message came on the heels of a "provocative new ad" released by the Trump reelection campaign that accused Democrats of being "complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants." The ad was strongly condemned by immigrant rights advocates, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who said on CNN, "It is really unbelievable and so sad for our country that we have a president of the United States who says such nonsense and such outrageous statements," and noted an "overwhelming" majority of Americans support keeping protections for Dreamers.
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Resistance Groups Protest #TrumpShutdown as Women's March Begins Weekend of Action
At some of the hundreds of Women's March events taking place across the country on Saturday, attendees voiced their anger over the GOP's refusal to include immigrant protections in a spending bill to keep the government running
Jan 20, 2018
This post has been updated.
As Americans woke up to the news on Saturday morning that the government had shut down over night, resistance groups and lawmakers urged citizens to mobilize against the Republican Party's refusal to include protections for young undocumented immigrants in a spending bill.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), one of the most vocal Trump critics in Congress, called on the thousands of people expected to attend events marking the first anniversary of the Women's March to voice their anger over the shutdown.
Meanwhile, MoveOn.org sent an email to its supporters urging them to organize or attend "speak-out" events next Monday through Wednesday.
"Trump is tweeting up a storm to pass blame for his shutdown off onto Democrats because they stood strong for Dreamers and resisted his radical agenda," wrote the group. "But we won't stand for it--and MoveOn members and our allies are going to show up at speak-out actions across the country this next week to demand that the GOP end the #TrumpShutdown and get back to work to pass the Dream Act and fund CHIP."
If lawmakers are unable to reach a temporary spending deal this weekend funding the government through February, the full government shutdown impacting "non-essential" federal offices will go into effect Monday.
Events in Santa Ana, California and Socorro, New Mexico were confirmed shortly after MoveOn.org made its appeal, while the group's Washington director, Ben Wikler, announced plans for protests at representatives' and senators' offices across the country.
As thousands took the streets across the country on Saturday for the first day of Women's March events, many protesters carried signs alluding to Democrats' demand for a clean DREAM Act, protecting young undocumented immigrants who have lived and worked in the U.S. for much of their lives, as well as children's health insurance, as part of any deal to fund the government.
Trump took note of the protesters who gathered by the thousands on Saturday, reminding his Twitter followers that "female unemployment" is currently low and appearing to feign ignorance regarding the Women's March's mission.
The unemployment rate for women began falling steadily in 2012, five years before Mr. Trump took office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of marchers gathered in cities around the world, ahead of Sunday's main event in Las Vegas. An estimated 120,000 men and women filled the streets of New York. Officials in other cities were still tallying numbers on Saturday. Images of the march in Washington, D.C. looked not unlike those from 2017, when the city's streets were filled with 400,000 demonstrators.
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