Trump Pledges ‘We Will Cure Cancer’ In 2nd Term, But His Budget Calls For Billion-Dollar Cancer Research Cut
At a rally in Orlando, Florida, billed as the official announcement of his 2020 re-election campaign, Donald Trump made a series of extravagant campaign promises, telling his supporters that in his second White House term, they can expect cures for cancer and AIDS, as well as “the foundation” for a manned space mission to Mars as The Daily Beast reported.
Trump’s pledge to cure cancer was especially odd, because earlier in the Orlando rally, his son Donald Trump Jr. ridiculed Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden for making a similar cancer pledge at a campaign stop of his own last week, according to The Hill.
“Remember? Joe Biden comes out, ‘Well, if you elect me president, I’m going to cure cancer,'” Trump Jr. said at the Orlando rally. “Wow, why the hell didn’t you do that over the last 50 years, Joe?”
While Biden’s promise to find a cure for cancer in his presidency has been called unrealistic by scientists, according to LiveScience, Biden has made finding a cure for the disease one of his top priorities since his own son, Beau Biden, died from brain cancer in 2015. Biden and his wife Jill started the Biden Cancer Initiative to support research into cancer cures and treatments.
But just a short time after Trump Jr. mocked Biden’s cancer-cure pledge, his own father made the same promise, and did Biden one better, also pledging to “eradicate” AIDS during his projected second term, as seen in the video below.
In this single clip, Trump promises to cure cancer, AIDS, and "lay the foundation" for a Mars landing — all in his second term pic.twitter.com/aLZqbx2p3N
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 19, 2019
Unlike Biden, however, Trump has taken no personal steps to advance cancer research, or AIDS research, though he claimed in the rally speech that “we’re getting closer all the time” to a cancer cure. In fact, in his proposed 2020 federal budget, Trump calls for cuts in cancer research funding, according to a Washington Post report.
And despite the fact that Trump at the rally also promised, “We will lay the foundation for landing American astronauts on the surface of Mars,” his budget proposal also cuts funding for America’s space agency, NASA.
Under the proposed Trump budget cuts, posted online by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Trump wants to slash National Cancer Institute funding by about 15 percent, or nearly $1 billion. He would also slash funds to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases by approximately 14 percent, or $750 million.
Though Trump billed the rally as the first of his 2020 re-election campaign, and his official announcement that he is running for a second term in the Oval Office, as Vox.com reports, Trump actually filed for re-election with the Federal Election Commission on January 20, 2017 — the same day he was inaugurated. Since then, he has held not just one but 47 campaign-style rallies, including his Orlando rally on Tuesday.
