Former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra blasted the Trump administration’s handling of public health since taking office, warning that its actions are a precursor of “how public health collapses.”
Writing on the social media platform X, Becerra, who’s running for California governor, said, “I’ve held back. Gave this administration a chance to settle in. But after this MAHA report fiasco, the vaccine rollbacks, and the silencing of public health experts—I’m done holding back. We have an obligation to speak up. And I will.”
He cited the death of two children this year from measles, the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) report’s citation of nonexistent studies and the “gutting [of] public health” as examples of how the Trump administration has failed to ensure public health.
“This is bigger than one bad report. They’re muzzling researchers. Laying off experts. Erasing science. And telling pregnant women and parents that vaccines don’t matter. This is how public health collapses,” wrote Becerra.
“We owe it to the people we serve—Democrat or Republican, urban or rural—to fight back with facts and protect the systems that keep our families safe,” he added. “Silence isn’t neutrality. It’s surrender.”
Since leaving HHS, Becerra hasn’t been entirely silent in his criticisms of the Trump administration’s actions. When HHS announced it would be cutting nearly a quarter of its staff, Becerra said, “It’s hard to make sense of the HHS cuts.”
“Who’s going to inspect our nursing homes? Who’s going to inspect for lead [in] those imported toys that our kids put in their mouths?” he said at the time, adding it had “the makings of a man-made disaster.”
Apart from health policy, Becerra also went after President Trump following the release of his budget proposal, which would cut the planned National Museum of the American Latino.
“I first introduced legislation to create the National Museum of the American Latino over 20 years ago — because our stories matter,” Becerra said this week. “Now Trump wants to kill it before it even has a building. You don’t honor history by erasing it. You build it.”
