(ThyBlackMan.com) During a private Easter luncheon at the White House, President Donald Trump made his position on child care funding unmistakably clear. He told attendees that he told Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought: “Don’t send any money for day care, because the United States can’t take care of day care. That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of day care. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care. You got to let a state take care of day care, and they should pay for it too.”
Later in his remarks, Trump said, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country.”
What Trump Calls “Day Care”
The “day care” that Trump was complaining about is Project Head Start—the early childhood federal program in the U.S. that promotes school readiness for children from low-income families from birth to age 5. Project Head Start was created in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” to break the cycle of poverty by providing comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and social services to low-income preschool children, while engaging parents as partners. It aimed to prepare disadvantaged children for school and support families. The program serves over a million children annually across the nation. For fiscal year 2026, Head Start and Early Head Start are funded at $12.36 billion.
Trump calls it “day care.” Reducing Head Start to “day care” is not just inaccurate—it diminishes its purpose. Dr. Mary Palmer, retired director of the child care centers at Southwest Community College in Memphis, with 40 years of experience in childcare, states that programs caring for children, “it is not ‘day care’ but ‘child care’. We don’t take care of the ‘day’, we take care of the ‘child’.
The Cost of War vs. The Cost of Children
Based on estimates from early March 2026, the United States is spending approximately $1 billion a day on military operations against Iran. And the first six days of the war (beginning around Feb 28, 2026) were estimated to have cost over $11.3 billion in munitions and direct costs. In other words, one week of the war with Iran can pay for an entire year of Head Start. This contrast raises a stark question: what does the federal government consider essential?
Project 2025 and the Push to Eliminate Head Start
Perhaps Trump’s got the idea to eliminate “day care” from Project 2025. Project 2025 has emerged as the guidebook, or the bible of Trump’s second term. The recommendation to eliminate the Head Start program is found in Chapter 14 of the Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership document, specifically on page 482. The text explicitly calls to “Eliminate the Head Start program” along with the entire Office of Head Start (OHS). The rationale given in Project 2025 for the elimination of Head Start is that it has “little or no long-term academic value for children.” This statement is false.
According to research done by Economists Dr. Martha J Bailey of the University of California-Los Angeles, and Dr. Brenden Timpe of the University of Nebraska, “Project Head Start provides significant long-term academic and life benefits, particularly for disadvantaged children, by increasing high school graduation rates, boosting college enrollment and completion (up to 39% more likely), and increasing the likelihood of earning post-secondary degrees or certifications. It reduces grade retention and improves adult economic self-sufficiency, including higher employment rates and lower poverty.”
Bombs or Babies?
During the first day of the war, the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, was bombed by the United States Armed Forces using a Tomahawk missile. Over 150 people were killed, including at least 120 schoolgirls aged between 7 and 12, along with teachers and parents.
On Tuesday, April 7, 2026, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social that he will destroy the entire Iranian civilization. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to ?happen, but it probably will.” There are approximately 6 million children aged birth to 5 in Iran who are the age of children served by Head Start in the U.S. Trump threaten to kill all 6 million of them.
The Trump administration is now seeking a record-breaking $1.5 trillion in defense spending for the 2027 fiscal year to fund military operations, including the conflict with Iran, representing a massive 40% increase in military spending. Reports indicate an additional $200 billion in supplemental funding was initially requested for the Iran war. $200 billion could fund the Head Start program for more than 15 years.
A Question of National Priorities
It seems that we have an administration that appears to be more concerned about bombs than it is about babies. The contrast is difficult to ignore. On one hand, a domestic program that nurtures the development, health, and future opportunity of vulnerable children faces elimination. On the other hand, military expenditures continue to expand at historic levels. The issue is not simply about budgets—it is about values. What does it mean for a nation to claim it “can’t afford” early childhood investment while committing vast resources to war? At what point does prioritizing military strength come at the expense of human development? In the end, the debate comes down to a fundamental choice: Should national power be measured primarily by the strength of its weapons—or by the well-being of its children?
Staff Writer; Dr. Robert J. Walker
