Trump administration sends letter wiping out addiction, mental health grants
Source: NPR
January 14, 2026 9:50 AM ET
The Trump administration sent shockwaves through the U.S. mental health and drug addiction system late Tuesday, sending hundreds of termination letters, effective immediately, for federal grants supporting health services.
Three sources said they believe total cuts to nonprofit groups, many providing street-level care to people experiencing addiction, homelessness and mental illness, could reach roughly $2 billion. NPR wasn't able to independently confirm the scale of the grant cancellation. The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) didn't respond to a request for clarification.
"We are definitely looking at severe loss of front-line capacity," said Andrew Kessler, head of Slingshot Solutions, a consultancy firm that works with mental health and addiction groups nationwide. "[Programs] may have to shut their doors tomorrow." Kessler said he has reviewed numerous grant termination letters from "Salt Lake City to El Paso to Detroit, all over the country." Ryan Hampton, the founder of Mobilize Recovery, a national advocacy nonprofit for people in and seeking recovery, told NPR his group lost roughly $500,000 "overnight."
"Waking up to nearly $2 billion in grant cancellations means front-line providers are forced to cease overdose prevention, naloxone distribution, and peer recovery services immediately, leaving our communities defenseless against a raging crisis," Hampton said. "This cruelty will be measured in lives lost, as recovery centers shutter and the safety net we built is slashed overnight. We are witnessing the dismantling of our recovery infrastructure in real-time, and the administration will have blood on its hands for every preventable death that follows."
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/01/14/nx-s1-5677104/trump-administration-letter-terminating-addiction-mental-health-grants
RussBLib
(10,435 posts)This guy (and his sickening sycophants) seem intent on scaling back damn near every expense of government, except for the military and ICE budgets, of course.
What is the advantage of terminating addiction and mental health programs? To cause more chaos and suffering in America?
https://russblib.blogspot.com
Lovie777
(21,851 posts)North Coast Lawyer
(232 posts)It's beyond false hope to expect this cowed boot-licking Congress will do anything about this latest cruelty.
Bayard
(28,700 posts)We have a deeply mentally ill man in charge of this country, and he's addicted to adderall. Oh, yeah--we're paying for his deluxe healthcare.
He needs that money to conquer Greenland. I expect a lot more of this.
riversedge
(79,578 posts)doing the trick!!
I have to say this comes out of the blue for me. I have read 2 articles and neither say if these funds have been appropriated by Congress.
Maybe future articles will tell us-all the articles do say this came about 'abruptly'!!
Solly Mack
(96,419 posts)Janbdwl72
(248 posts)Sure seems that way, regardless of who he hurts.
raccoon
(32,230 posts)Ol Janx Spirit
(757 posts)...justify more rampant deployment of troops into cities.
I think this is calculated to ensure there is more visible crime in America to "put down."
And yes, they are just that cruel....
Javaman
(65,166 posts)Skittles
(169,735 posts)but has zero interest in treatment of drug addiction
the man is a total fraud
IbogaProject
(5,638 posts)Rather than being about lowering usage.
ColoringFool
(284 posts)Ol Janx Spirit
(757 posts)...more of his goon-squad troops.
Ending these programs are an easy way to create more visible crime on the streets of our country.
None of it--not Venezuela; not this--has anything to do with actual drugs.
OldBaldy1701E
(10,275 posts)Is out making their masters richer. There is no room in such an environment for anyone who is sick or unable to work themselves into a grave. They have to be removed. So, this is one of the ways that they accomplish this objective. By removing any and all aspects of the social safety net, only healthy workers will be alive to work.
Ironically, once they have thinned out our local herd, they will discover that they need many more warm bodies to keep their profit machines working and running, so they will... GASP... have to start letting people immigrate here.
Oh, the delicious hypocrisy of these greedy-ass idiots.
RussBLib
(10,435 posts)...they wanted to rid Germany of all of the "defectives," including the Jews, gays, and anyone not white, because it weakened the Master (White) Race. Those addicted to drugs or those with mental health issues would be among those to be purged.
He is following the Nazi playbook again.
https://russblib.blogspot.com
NoMoreRepugs
(11,815 posts)how they will handle it.
littlemissmartypants
(31,726 posts)iemanja
(57,435 posts)There has never been an eviller man in the US.
purr-rat beauty
(1,003 posts)Fucking shitbag needs to kick the shitter
sakabatou
(45,797 posts)LudwigPastorius
(14,237 posts)is this a precursor to rounding them up and disappearing them for the "good of society"?
chiffondior
(36 posts)The people who own this government consider the people who need these programs to be undesirables and thus, they want to cut the funding in hopes they just die off.
mn9driver
(4,826 posts)The chaos is the point.
jfz9580m
(16,620 posts)And keep sleazy, Reefer Madness adjacent Coercive Psychiatry (as needed anyway)..Coercive Psychiatry or stalkerish fraudulent monitoring over bogus safety concerns about radicals would be in line with these shitheads and a similar type I have come across irl.
Political abuse of Psychiatry (along with general disregard for actual science and medicine) would be very on brand for these Trumpy douches and their corporate partners. In fairness, some of those sleazebags exist on both sides of the political aisle.
I am not anti-psychiatry but coercive psychiatry for no damn reason except to get potential complainants on file as mentally disturbed is political abuse of psychiatry and makes people behave erratically in reaction.