Lara Trump: The Trump Administration Is Phasing Out Testing On Animals, But Don’t Expect The Media To Tell You

There’s a good reason why you’ve probably never heard of President Trump’s success in promoting animal welfare — the media are desperate to move on from any story that humanizes this president.

Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its decision to reduce animal testing, with the goal of phasing out mammal studies completely by 2035. In addition, the agency will award $4.25 million in grants to various academic institutions “to advance the research and development of alternative test methods” and to ultimately “eliminate” the need for animal testing altogether.

Make no mistake, this is great news for animal rights advocates — and the Trump administration deserves full credit for spearheading an ongoing campaign against animal cruelty.

Sadly, the mainstream media doesn’t like to linger very long on news stories that might present President Trump in a positive light. While some mainstream media outlets did report on the EPA’s new plan to eliminate animal testing, the momentous development was quickly buried as journalists returned to their relentless anti-Trump coverage.

To make matters worse, some news outlets even tried to spin the news in a negative light, portraying the initiative as the only positive animal welfare policy to come from this administration.

Of course, this sort of politically-motivated dishonesty is nothing new, but it’s particularly galling in this case because the Trump administration has managed to promote so many long-standing goals of the animal rights movement.

For years, I have traveled all around the country to promote animal welfare, fighting for policies that will finally eliminate unnecessary animal suffering. Just this spring, I backed a long-overdue federal crackdown on inhumane puppy mill practices, including commercial puppy breeding operations. When the U.S. Department of Agriculture first proposed a new rule to eliminate these practices, I joined former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Florida Republican Reps. Brian Mast and Matt Gaetz to urge the public to support the measure.

My father-in-law and his Republican allies deserve praise for protecting animal rights in other ways, too — after all, his administration has also backed a number of other animal welfare initiatives, including the “pets for vets” program and a move to reverse euthanasia plans for horses on federal lands.

These are all major proposals that animal welfare activists have been supporting for many years, yet the muted media coverage of them means that most Americans have no idea how much progress this administration has made on this important issue. There’s certainly more work to be done to pass these proposals, but the commitment from this administration to make changes in policy that will reduce and eliminate the suffering of animals in our society is genuine and strong.

Regrettably, the media are seemingly incapable of mentioning the words “compassion” and “Trump” in the same sentence. Their sole objective is to denigrate and demean the president. This administration’s record of promoting animal welfare directly contradicts their dishonest narrative altogether.

Lara Trump (@LaraLeaTrump) is a senior adviser to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and is President Trump’s daughter-in-law.