House Speaker Nancy Pelosi commented on President Donald Trump's plan to increase funding for childhood cancer research, saying the proposed $500 million over 10 years is "like the cost of his protection of his Mar-a-Lago or something.” | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO Health care Pelosi rips Trump's childhood cancer research boost as inadequate

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday trashed President Donald Trump’s plan to boost funding for childhood cancer research by $500 million over a decade, deriding his State of the Union proposal as severely lacking.

“$500 million over 10 years – are you kidding me?” Pelosi said during a closed-door conference meeting, according to an aide in the room. “Who gave him that [$50 million] figure? It’s like the cost of his protection of his Mar-a-Lago or something.”


Trump during his Tuesday night speech highlighted the need to direct more funding to pediatric cancer research, noting there’s been little progress made toward curing many childhood cancers. Trump called the fight against childhood cancer one "that all Americans can get behind."

But allotting an extra $500 million over the next decade pales in comparison to the National Cancer Institute’s nearly $6 billion annual budget — or even the Obama administration’s cancer moonshot, which resulted in Congress approving $1.8 billion over seven years to finding a cure.

“We’re talking about a moonshot,” Pelosi said during the conference meeting. “He’s talking about a trolley ride.”

Pelosi struck a cautious note on the president’s new plan to end new HIV transmissions by 2030, calling the plan “interesting” on Tuesday night but inconsistent with the administration policies that she said amount to an “assault on health care and the dignity of the LGBTQ community.”