Trump's Hypocrisy on HIV Treatment and Prevention

In between his dangerous lies about immigrants and his cowardly refusal to defend his proposed ban on transgender troops, President Donald Trump made a surprising promise in his State of the Union speech last week.

“In recent years we have made remarkable progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS,” he said. “Scientific breakthroughs have brought a once-distant dream within reach. My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years.”

The promise to end HIV transmissions in the US by 2030 is definitely possible, according to HIV researchers and advocates who have previously estimated the US could reach that goal by 2025. But Trump is a very unlikely messenger for this policy. He has spent his entire administration trying to limit health care access for those most at risk for HIV, and otherwise restricting the rights of groups like immigrants, people of color, and LGBTQ people. Read more...

By Gillian Branstetter