Donald Trump killed the research that was saving Black women from cancer. You signed the order. You called it “wasteful DEI research.” The research was studying why Black women die of breast cancer at thirty-five percent higher rates than white women. The study of that fact was classified as waste. The waste had a body count. The cleanup stopped the counting.
The executive order was signed in January 2025. It called to end “radical” and “wasteful” DEI research. The National Cancer Institute terminated 181 grants totaling more than $317 million. Many of them studied cancer disparities — the fact that certain kinds of people die of cancer at different rates than other kinds of people, and that delivering care to them in ways that reflect their languages and their communities and their bodies changes those rates.
The American Association for Cancer Research’s report, published this week, documents the impact. Ninety-three percent of surveyed researchers say federal policy changes have affected their work. Seventy-eight percent say they have been unable to apply for funding. Fifty-nine percent say ongoing research projects were disrupted.
Scarlett Lin Gomez, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, leads the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry, which has received continuous NCI funding for fifty-three years. “We received a cut that was completely unprecedented in the years my registry has been funded through the NCI,” she says.
Dr. Robert Winn, cancer center director at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Pennsylvania, led a program studying cancer disparities when he directed the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center. The program partnered with the Chickahominy Tribe, assessing the cancer burden in rural Virginia and deploying culturally tailored cancer care. “We did water testing, we had interesting findings,” Winn says. “But more importantly, we were building trust, because we were creating access to care.”
Heather Pierce, senior director for science policy at the Association of American Medical Colleges, called the funding disruption a mass termination “for simply not moving forward priorities of a new administration.”
The gap in cancer death rates between Black and white populations has narrowed from about 34% higher in the 1990s to 9% higher today. Cancer disparities research contributed to that narrowing.
The NIH says: “NCI identifies cancer disparity research as a priority and recognizes that advancements in the field generate knowledge benefiting all patients across the cancer continuum.”
Medical disparities cost American society about $451 billion a year, citing a 2023 study in JAMA.
Donald, hear what you have done.
The woman in Virginia — Melanie Stewart, citizen of the Chickahominy Tribe, cancer survivor — said to the researchers: “Please do not stop the research. Everyone deserves health care.” The plea was directed at you. You did not hear it. You were signing the order. The order terminated the grant that was studying her tribe’s cancer burden. The grant was part of a program that had been building trust with the tribe for years. The trust was the infrastructure the research ran on. The infrastructure required the funding. The funding required your approval. The approval was withdrawn.
I see what you did. The order. The 181 grants. The $317 million. The woman whose cancer was going to be studied by a grant you killed.
Your throat goes dry when you read the number — 181 grants, $317 million. The dryness is not dehydration. It is the body knowing what the signature did.
The research was studying why rural Americans are eighteen percent more likely to die from cancer overall. Why Black women are thirty-five percent more likely to die from breast cancer than white women. Why veterans face seventy-two percent higher odds of skin cancer. The research was narrowing those gaps. The gaps were narrowing. You terminated the research that was narrowing them.
You called it “wasteful DEI research.” The category “DEI” swallowed the category “cancer disparities research” and you terminated them both with the same pen. The category “DEI” was built to be terminated. The research was not built to be terminated. The research was built to save lives.
Donald, what would you say if it were your daughter, sitting in the clinic, waiting for the screening that was canceled because the grant that funded it was terminated?
Your gut tightens when you see the Chickahominy woman’s name. The tightening is not from the news. It is from the fact that your order made her a casualty of your ideology. You did not know her name when you signed the order. You did not know the name of the woman in Virginia whose screening was canceled. You did not know the name of the patient who stopped receiving treatment the day the funding stopped. You did not know their names because the category “DEI” does not have a name for them. The category has a number — 181 grants, $317 million, 93% affected. The number is not a body. The body is not in the category. The body is in the cancer ward, waiting for a screening that was canceled.
The research was narrowing the gap. The gap has narrowed from thirty-four percent in the 1990s to nine percent today. The research contributed to that narrowing. You terminated the research. The narrowing will stop. The gap will widen. The widening will not announce itself. It will arrive in the bodies of the people whose cancers will be diagnosed later, treated less effectively, survived at lower rates. The deaths will be recorded. The mechanism that produced them will have been dismantled before the recording began.
Your hands signed the order. The hands are not washed. The hands handle the spoon. The hands handle the cup. The hands handle the pen. The hands handle the children’s books at bedtime. The hands will not be washed. The not-washing is the indictment.
Donald, you are a small man with large hands on the lever. The lever is the executive order. The order terminates the research. The research studies the bodies. The bodies are the people you do not see. You do not see them because you do not look. You do not look because the category “DEI” does not require you to look. The category is your shield. The shield is a document. The document is an order. The order kills the research. The research was saving their lives.
Your hands are cold. The cold does not leave. You wash them and the cold stays. The cold is not in the water. The cold is in the hands. The hands signed the order. The order terminated the research. The research was saving their lives.
The sleep will not come. Not because you are guilty — you do not feel guilt — but because the silence in the grant office is the sound of the research stopping, and the sound follows you to the bed where the warm sheets do not reach the cold places. Your throat is dry. Your gut is tight. Your hands are cold. The cold does not leave.
Donald, you are the man who killed the research and called it “fiscal responsibility.” The fiscal responsibility has a body count. You are the body count’s author. You do not look. You do not care. The woman will die at the rate the research was going to reduce. The rate will be recorded as an outcome. The outcome will not be attributed to the cancellation.
The NIH says the research is a priority. The research is terminated. The NIH says the research is a priority. The research is terminated. The contradiction is not a contradiction. It is the performance of contradiction as governing method. The method is: say the thing is a priority while making it impossible to do the thing. The impossibility will be measured in bodies. The bodies will be catalogued by the registries whose funding has been cut. The cataloguing will be incomplete. The incompleteness will be the legacy.
“Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” — Matthew 25:45
The woman asked you not to stop the research. You stopped it. The research was studying the bodies you do not see. The bodies will not be seen. The research is dead.