Betrayed and Abandoned: Trump’s War on Veterans

Slashing the VA, Gutting Benefits, and Breaking America’s Promise to Those Who Served

It is a compact, a written agreement, between those who serve in the military and the nation they defend. It goes something like this: You give years of your life to a grueling job—one that is underpaid, often underappreciated, and may demand enduring the lethal hell that is war. In return, when you leave the service, the country will take care of you through a host of programs run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This promise has held for more than a century, doing more to build America’s middle class than almost any other initiative. It is, in other words, an unqualified success. Now, the Trump administration wants to tear it apart.

According to a leaked document, Trump and his slash-and-burn budget cutters plan to reduce the VA’s workforce by 15 percent—eliminating 80,000 jobs. Many of those on the chopping block are veterans themselves, some of whom voted for Trump in three elections.

Some Trump-supporting veterans have already lost their jobs and are reeling from the betrayal. “I feel like my life, and the lives of so many like me—so many who have sacrificed so much for this country—are being destroyed,” said Nathan Hooven in an interview with the Associated Press. Hooven, a disabled Air Force veteran and former Trump supporter, was fired from his VA job without warning. “I think a lot of other veterans voted the same way, and we have been betrayed.”

The hypocrisy of Trump’s plan is impossible to ignore. This is the man who kissed and hugged the Stars and Stripes during a 2020 campaign speech—the same man who now wants to gut the agency that provides veterans with the care and benefits they earned. But he’s not alone. For decades, the Republican Party has wrapped itself in the flag, portraying itself as the party of patriotism, service, and military strength. Now, to pay for massive tax cuts, they’re targeting those who actually wore the uniform.

The VA provides critical services to more than 15 million veterans—everything from healthcare at 170 medical centers to home loans, life insurance, and college tuition. It takes a massive workforce to deliver these services, and as an employer, the VA gives preference to veterans. More than a quarter of its workforce—tens of thousands of people—are former service members. If the cuts move forward, as many as 20,000 veterans will lose their jobs.

This, at a time when the VA is legally required to expand services for those exposed to toxic burn pits and other battlefield hazards. I know what that means firsthand. Like so many veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, I was exposed to burn pits. I am as concerned about the documented health affects as others are. The care we receive through the VA isn’t a handout—it’s part of the contract this country made with us when we signed up to serve.

And yet, the Trump administration continues to defend its plan, dressing up these cuts in the kind of empty rhetoric that defines Trump-era politics. A White House spokesperson claimed that slashing the workforce would somehow “improve” the VA’s ability to deliver “timely and quality care… preserving the benefits veterans earned.” If you think reducing staff improves service, then you’ve never tried to buy groceries in a store with too few cashiers.

Of course, we know that Donald Trump hasn’t purchased groceries in, say, forever. More to the point, he’s a man who dodged military service with a bogus medical deferment, dismissed fallen soldiers as “losers” and “suckers,” and now, unsurprisingly, is attacking the very system that supports those who did serve.

For veterans, this isn’t about politics. It’s about upholding the sacred promise our nation made to those who put on the uniform. And once again, Trump is proving that his brand of flag-waving patriotism is nothing more than a campaign prop—discarded the moment it becomes inconvenient.

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