Robert C. O’Brien for The National Interest: How Donald Trump Can Fix US Biodefense

Robert C. O’Brien for The National Interest: How Donald Trump Can Fix US Biodefense

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The Biden administration left the United States underprepared for biological weapon attacks.

The United States will host three of the world’s most consequential global events over the next two years—the World Cup, America 250, and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Through these gatherings, President Donald Trump will showcase our nation’s strength, unity, and enduring promise to the world. These events are also high-risk targets for biological attack, a risk exacerbated by the failure of the Biden administration to prepare for such contingencies adequately. This risk of a biological attack is not just theoretical. In 2026, we will mark the 25th anniversary of the anthrax attacks on the US Capitol, which happened shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks. Anthrax was placed in letters that were mailed and killed five Americans and sickened 17, in what the FBI described as the worst biological attack in American history. In December, a new report emerged that Iran is attempting to develop ballistic missiles that carry biological and chemical payloads. As President Trump’s national security advisor in his first term, I was keenly aware of these risks and coordinated an approach to combat them. Unfortunately, even in the face of these threats, the Biden administration publicly disclosed plans to reduce significantly, and in some cases eliminate, investments in stockpiling life-saving countermeasures needed to deter and respond to threats. Some of these planned cuts were set to occur in the same fiscal year as the World Cup and America 250. In other instances, the administration planned to redirect the Strategic National Stockpile’s biodefense future-year spending towards Biden’s pandemic preparedness—deeming COVID-19-era programs a greater priority than defending the lives of Americans from biological or chemical weapons. The Biden administration was repeatedly warned of the implications of its failure to prioritize preparedness and response. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that President Biden’s Budget Request would not come close to fully meeting the Strategic National Stockpile’s needs. Industry groups stated that cuts could strain the nation’s already struggling industrial base. In 2022, the Biden administration’s lackluster biodefense preparedness efforts were cause for them to be added to the GAO’s High-Risk list, with the GAO specifically citing concerns with HHS’s “capabilities to fully execute its preparedness and response activities,” including challenges in managing the Strategic National Stockpile. Congressional leadership accused Biden’s preparedness agencies of stockpile mismanagement so severe that it left the nation unprepared for future challenges. Even our nation’s top public servants at the Strategic National Stockpile alleged that these funding shortfalls impair their ability to do their jobs effectively. Despite these very real claims, the Biden administration charged ahead to underfund and mismanage the nation’s preparedness, leaving the mess to President Trump to fix. Correcting the Biden preparedness failure demands more than just good intentions today. Thankfully, the Trump team has taken biological, chemical, and nuclear risks seriously. On day one of his second term, President Trump ordered the National Security Council to fortify America’s biosecurity.

Less than two weeks later, he nominated Dr. Bob Kadlec, an extraordinarily qualified individual, for a key post managing America’s deterrence and preparedness against biological and chemical threats. In August, President Trump issued an executive order to ensure the resilience of the supply chain for countermeasures, thereby bolstering some of the same countermeasures the Biden administration had planned to eliminate outright. The hardworking staff at the Strategic National Stockpile has also taken steps recently to procure countermeasures that the Biden administration originally planned to eliminate, such as anthrax antitoxin, which had previously been on Biden’s chopping block. While stockpile levels are still dangerously low, the Strategic National Stockpile’s recent work represents a strong step in the right direction. An America-First approach is required to reverse Biden’s preparedness failure. That starts with increasing the FY27 President’s Budget Request for the Strategic National Stockpile to ensure we may fully replenish preparedness gaps and resource the small team responsible for protecting all of America. The Strategic National Stockpile must also develop long-term sustainability agreements to bolster the domestic industrial base for countermeasures, especially those with limited commercial markets, which the Biden administration neglected to procure. We must also forward-deploy medical countermeasures to US military bases and embassies overseas, to help deter the use of offensive biological weapons against deployed Americans. Finally, we must call on our allies to stockpile American-made countermeasures, a sustainment measure that augments our domestic industrial base while expanding deterrence capabilities globally. These America-First steps are critical to ensuring the health and safety of the American people. Congress has also shown significant bipartisan support for fixing the Biden administration’s preparedness failure. Just this past year, the Senate Appropriations Committee called on the Strategic National Stockpile to work to mitigate specific gaps across medical countermeasure portfolios, as did the House Armed Services Committee in this year’s NDAA report. Congress should continue to support measures like these that address deficiencies in the Strategic National Stockpile and fully fund it. Trump is uniquely situated to correct his predecessor’s mistake and take an America-First approach to protecting Americans. We must act now to close the bioterror preparedness gap or risk the unfathomable.

  • Robert C. O’Brien is the co-founder and chairman of American Global Strategies LLC. He was the 27th United States National Security Advisor from 2019-2021 and serves on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) in President Donald Trump’s second term. Through AGS, he advises corporations on understand how government policy, geopolitical developments, and national security priorities shape business decisions, advising executive leadership facing regulatory complexity, global market exposure, and policy shifts across the United States and key international markets.