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Three weeks in, the second Trump administration has already flooded the zone with an absolutely overwhelming volume of executive orders, tariff threats, and whatever Elon Musk is doing. So I’m going to focus this week on two actions that specifically target children — in particular, trans kids, whose lives have been at the center of a culture war waged by adults for several years now.

First, Donald Trump last week signed an executive order attempting to withdraw federal funding for gender-affirming care for people under 19 — care that can include puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and, in rare cases, surgery.

The order not only attempts to bar federal insurance programs like Medicaid from covering such care, it also threatens to strip federal funding from hospitals that offer it. Executive orders are not laws, and advocates say Trump’s order does not legally require any immediate action by providers. But the move has already had a chilling effect — hospitals around the country have stopped treating trans kids, leaving some families unsure where they can turn for treatments that can reduce gender dysphoria and allow young people to live according to their identities.

For many, those treatments are urgent. Gender-affirming care has been shown to reduce the risk of suicide, and advocates are worried about what will happen if more kids around the country lose access to the care they need. “It’s my fear that it’s going to skyrocket a lot of trans young people making a hasty decision to take their life,” Jae Douglas, a 21-year-old activist who works with the nonprofits Capital Tea and Advocates for Youth, told me.

Meanwhile, a second executive order signed last week appears to threaten federal funding for schools that allow trans students to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, and even suggests prosecuting teachers for “unlawfully facilitating the social transition of a minor student” or “unlawfully practicing medicine by offering diagnoses and treatment without the requisite license.” The........

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